Pick Your Own!
Love fresh food? Fancy a fun day out foraging for fruit and vegetables? Enjoy the season’s best produce at Pick Your Own farms near you…
Harvesting your own fruit and vegetables isn’t simply a great day out for families and foodies alike, but a guaranteed way to inject your homecooked meals with the amazing flavours and nourishment that only freshly picked ingredients provide. A treat for children in more ways than one, visiting a PYO farm helps kids learn where their food comes from and how it’s grown, why ingredients consumed during their best season improves their quality and helps reduce food waste, and provides a super-healthy dose of fresh air, fun and exercise.
It’s also an opportunity to support local rural businesses, where many PYO farms have been owned and run by generations of the same family. You’ll often find special play areas, petting enclosures, ice cream parlours and well-stocked food shops bursting with even more great produce from the farm and surrounding areas.
Of course crops are ever at the mercy of the elements and seasons, so it’s always worth contacting the farm ahead of your visit if there are specific fruits and vegetables that you have in mind. Use our quick-look guide to the best of summer’s bounty available over the coming months, and be sure to visit some of the farms below to enjoy the best that nature has to offer, picked with your very own hands.
Taste of the Summer
Rhubarb April – June / Asparagus April – July / Strawberries June – September / Gooseberries June – July / Redcurrant’s June – July / Blackcurrants June – July / Raspberries June – July / Mange tout June – July / Broad Beans June – July / Courgettes June – July / Spinach June – August / Carrots June – August / Marrows June – August / Tomatoes July – August / Runner Beans July – August
PYO Farms Near You
Garsons
Garsons, Winterdown Road, West End, Esher, Surrey
With over 150 acres of fruit, vegetables and flowers, Garsons is the largest Pick Your Own farm in the UK. From May to October there is a choice of over 28 crops available to harvest at their farm in Esher, Surrey. They include strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, runner beans and peas among many others. They also have an excellent farm shop full of delicious local produce. You can even pick up radiant sunflowers for your garden.
Find out more at www.garsons.co.uk
Secrett’s at Milford
Hurst Farm, Chapel Lane, Milford, Godalming
May sees the return of the award-winning Secrett’s Farm favourite crop asparagus, back after a two-year break for replanting. There’s far more goodness to be found among the tilled rows than the buttery green spears of course, with a delicious range of vegetables, salad leaves, herbs and soft fruit to pick to your heart’s content. And if it’s not in the field then you’re bound to find something amazing in the astonishing Farm Shop.
Find out more at www.secretts.co.uk
Crockford Bridge Farm
New Haw Road, Addlestone, Weybridge
Open from May to September, Crockford Bridge Farm grows more than 20 different fruit and vegetable crops on its 75 acres. Spring sees delicious rhubarb and asparagus, while from late May there is an abundant crop of the strawberries and raspberries Crockford are renowned for. Choose a warm day to visit, and you can cool off in their special Ice Cream parlour and Tea Shack. The parlour serves Richmond’s finest Galeteria Danieli ice cream in over 24 flavours, many of which incorporate ingredients produced on the farm.
Find out more atwww.crockfordbridgefarm.co.uk
West Green Fruits
West Green Road, Hartley Wintney, Hook
Established in 1997, West Green Fruits is a family-run business set in 20 acres of farmland near Hartley Wintney. Nearly all of your favourite summer crops can be found here, from strawberries to raspberries, rhubarb and gooseberries. Unique to West Green Fruits, however, are specially grown ‘hybrid’ fruits you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. These include tayberries, tummelberries, loganberries and boysenberries, all of which can really add a delicious perk to summer puddings or jams.
Find out more at www.westgreenfruits.com
Copas Farm
Lower Mount Farm, Long Lane, Cookham, Berkshire and Calves Lane Farm, Billet Lane, Iver, Buckinghamshire
Copas Farms is a modern and progressive family-run business with a deep commitment to sustainable farming. Both sites – one at Cookham in Berkshire and the other at Iver in Buckinghamshire – offer a wide range of high-quality seasonal fruit and vegetables with strawberries, raspberries and cherries being particular favourites. They also produce apples, blackcurrants, plums, beans and peas and much more. You’ll find Farm Shops that stock ready-picked and frozen fruit and vegetables together with their own Copas Farms Apple Juice.
Find out more at www.copasfarms.co.uk
Gray’s Farm
Open Mon-Sat 9am-6pm / Heathlands Rd, Wokingham
The Grays have run their award-winning farm and farm shop for over two generations, and now Peter Gray, his wife Elizabeth and their son Paul continue the business, growing a luscious panoply of produce year-in year-out. The Gray’s spent 2018 planting almost five more miles of strawberry and raspberry canes, virtually guaranteeing rich pickings for visitors over the season. You’ll find almost two dozen other crops to fill your punnets and baskets too, from broad beans to broccoli, rhubarb, beetroot and potatoes.
Don’t miss the Red Cross Plant Sale on the late May Bank Holiday Saturday 25th May!
Find out more at www.graysfarm.co.uk