Wednesday, 14 July 2010

The Joys of Picking Your Own

Now the sunny weather is here all sorts of fruit and veg has sprouted, blossomed and grown and is now ripe for the picking. Last weekend was a particularly sunny day and I spent a most enjoyable afternoon at a Pick Your Own farm, doing just that – picking my own fruit and veg.

I went with my mother and grandmother to Grove Farm, which is about an hours drive away but well worth the trip. They sell different fruits and vegetables over a 4-5 month summer period depending on what’s in season and growing at that moment. When we visited they had strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, fresh peas, spinach, new potatoes, beetroot, broad beans and carrots.

The fun thing is that when they say Pick Your Own they really mean it, as you are provided with a wheelbarrow, bags, boxes and a spade and sent to trundle through the surrounding fields and bushes, digging up and collecting the produce to your hearts content.

It can’t get any fresher than actually pulling your own carrots and beetroot directly out the ground! The intensity of carrot flavour is a just picked carrot is unbelievable!

The sun was shining as all three generations of our family chatted while lifting the leaves of the strawberry plants, hunting out the plump red fruits hidden underneath, sampling the odd one just to check their ripeness.

We came away laden with fresh produce – I see plenty of salads and fruity treats ahead! There are quite a number of PYO farms dotted around and I highly recommend hunting them out. The produce is often far cheaper than the supermarkets and aside from growing your own, you won’t find fresher or more local produce.

8 comments:

Kavey said...

How fabulous, pick your own beetroot and carrots!

I posted recently about our visit to a local PYO farm - with my bad back and hips, I really really loved their waist-height table top strawberry system! (Pics in the blog post)

Unknown said...

This looks like so much fun! You got some fine looking produce there!

Simones Kitchen said...

O I wish we had something like that here! That sounds like so much fun to do! And your bounty of goodness in the cart looks amazing!

Chele said...

I am dying to go to a PYO. Unfortunately we don't have a car and all the PYO's around here aren't on the bus route :0(
Looks like you manged a great stash though. Lucky you.

oneordinaryday said...

Oh, that's so awesome! The pick-your-own farms I take my kids too are always farms that specialize in just one thing - apples, berries, etc. Not that they aren't great places, but I would LOVE to go to a farm where we could dig up carrots or potatoes or cut a big head of lettuce. That would be just great!

The Caked Crusader said...

Looks like you got some fab stuff. Mr CC and I are going to start foraging - it's so exciting finding your food and picking it yourself

Monica H said...

Now that's a wheelbarrow of freshness. can't wait to see what you whip up.

Shabs.. said...

Wow....aftre being in uk for so long, i never knew such a thing even existed...are these farms everywhere....I just would go super exited!i love the idea of picking your own!wow....wow...M following ur blog, loved it!