About Tarts and Crafts

Tarts and Crafts first opened it’s door to residents and visitors to Balmedie in November 2004 as a community café and craft gallery. It is run as a professional business but entirely staffed by very hard working volunteers. Any small profits that are currently made go back into improving the facilities at the café for the communities benefit and we are continually applying for grants to make the bigger improvements.

It was created by four local women because Balmedie is a rapidly growing village, but as more houses are built no supporting community amenities were being provided. We saw the need for a friendly warm meeting point in the village, accessible to all where people young and old can meet for a bite and a chat. There are books, games and changing facilities for younger children and breast-feeding is smiled upon. There is disabled parking and room in the café and the toilet for wheelchairs. There is a smooth path up from the co-op.

We serve freshly ground fair-trade coffee, a wide assortment of teas, fair-trade hot chocolate and lots of cold drinks that are sugar free or organic. Hungry? Choose from home-baked cakes, toasties and snacks and home-made seasonal soup with freshly made organic rolls and cheese scones. All food is made on the premises by our fantastic volunteers using fair-trade sugar and coca and organic flours and we try to make soups with seasonal British ingredients. See the menu for the full run-down!

We also wanted to create an outlet for local crafts people and artists producing high quality work. There is a lot of talent in this area and not many craft venues at which to see and buy it. We have a hung exhibition on the walls which changes every month (see exhibitions page) and permanently show the work of over sixty talented Scottish artists and crafts people, most of whom are local, see links page for some of their work. There is always new stock coming in.

There are now weekend craft classes in a huge variety of mediums running every fortnight. Some classes are for adults, some are for children and some are for families, see classes page for more information. There is also a meditation night every fortnight on a Friday, see classes page for the dates and more information. We have recently started selling Pushing out the Boat, a magazine of local poets work and hope to starts a writers group soon.

Tarts and Crafts also stock some (largely organic) whole-foods and lots of fair-trade or organic chocolate products! We sell local certified organic vegetables when they’re in season (from about October to April) that are very popular and taste so much better than the supermarket veggies.

We compost, re-use, recycle or burn almost all our waste to try to minimise our ecological foot print and are continually receiving donations of useful things and old wood to burn on the wood burning stove which saves it filling up the local landfill!. If you have any waste wood please bring it along- we get through a lot in the winter months.

If you would like to get involved in any way please drop us an email info@tartsandcrafts.co.uk, there are many different jobs; clearing tables and making soups; making and distributing posters; making and erecting signs; building things; arranging stock and hanging exhibitions. The list is endless!

We are open Wednesdays - Saturdays 10-4pm and Sundays 12-4pm. We are closed for the first few weeks of January so we can get our holidays but feel free to call and check if we are open! 01358 742 002