A roadside stall selling soft fruit and vegetables in the summer months became a year-round farm shop and café with help from Defra's Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES). Now the Balloon Tree Farmshop and Café in the vale of York has won the Evening Press New Business of the Year Award 2004.

Julian Vallance owns three meadows at North Walden which are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and are farmed by Robert Tiplady under an ESA agreement. A few years ago the two of them joined forces with specialist seed company Emorsgate to harvest seed from the meadows, which is then sold commercially.

Using a £48,000 Rural Enterprise Scheme grant from Defra, Yorkshire Wolds farmers Tom Mellor and Derek Gray have set up Wold Top Brewery in a converted 19th century granary at Hunmanby Grange.

A 50% Rural Enterprise Scheme grant of £26,000 was awarded to Anthony and Vanessa Roberts to help them develop the food element of Kilnsey Park through the marketing and expansion of their range of ready meals, focussing specifically on branded local game based products.

A 30% Rural Enterprise Scheme grant of nearly £60,000 was awarded to Nigel Brotherton to help him establish Moorsfresh, a food distribution network in the North Yorkshire area, linking producers with outlets (particularly tourist accommodation based businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber).

Springhill Water

Two Rural Enterprise Scheme grants of £4,350 and £24,528 were awarded to R J Blomfield & Son of Springhill Farm to help fund development and expansion of their on-farm spring water bottling enterprise.

A Rural Enterprise Scheme grant of over £107,000 was awarded to John Weatherill of Millington Grange Estate to help to expand his Yorkshire Beef Ltd operation to include other local producers in a collaborative marketing venture to improve the marketing of regionally produced Yorkshire beef.

Life Hill
The Grace family have been farming at Life Hill Farm since 1958 as tenants of the Sledmere Estate in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Andrew Grace succeeded his father as tenant in 1985. The 18th century farmhouse and associated buildings are listed as grade II. The farm comprises 205 hectares, the majority of which is managed on a conventional arable rotation of winter wheat, winter and spring barley, oil seed rape and vining peas. About 30ha of arable land is farmed organically under the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS).

A 30% Processing & Marketing Grant of over £215,000 was awarded to Rob Bannister of Farmhouse Potato Bakers to fund a major expansion of production facilities for greater volume and new product lines, including high care area, new oven, refrigeration, cold store, new potato processing equipment and ancillary works.