Strawberry Picking

Ever since I found out about pick-your-own farms a couple of years ago, I've wanted to visit one and pick my own fruits. I love the idea of picking your own produce in a relaxed and fun kind of way! So after a little googling around for some local pick-your-own farms and seeing what was available at each farm, I settled for Cammas Hall Farm in Bishops Stortford. I thought that whilst John and I were both off work together, it would be a great opportunity to some something nice and visit one together.

Cammas Hall Farm has a bunch of Pick-Your-Own fruits, vegetables and even flowers to choose from, from strawberries and blueberries, onions and pumpkins in October and even sunflowers. The farm is located in Bishop Stortford and is a lovely place to spend a morning. We went intending to pick strawberries, raspberries and blueberries but unfortunately, the blueberries were closed for today so we picked for the other two instead. I did want to get a couple of sunflowers too, but I completely forgot to!

Strawberry Picking

When we walked into the farm, we were complete newbies at this and so we didn't know how to even get started. Luckily one of the assistants noticed and told us to choose our punnets and pay for what we pick on our way back out. It was as simple as that so we set out with two punnets ready for strawberries and raspberries.

We got out into the fields and though their website said that they had limited availability of their strawberries, we were amazed to see how many strawberries were still around to pick. There were rows upon rows of ready to pick strawberries. We could have picked two punnets full but with only two of us, we didn't want to be greedy and let the strawberries go to waste. We had so much fun looking for ones we liked and filling up our punnet. We looked for strawberries that were just ripe and a decent size so that we had the best quality and even discussed why the ones that were hanging low were the best. (Because they didn't touch anything and so weren't bruised or going off.)

With all our strawberries picked and our punnet almost overflowing, we decided to stop and go for some raspberries which were just a field away.

Raspberry Picking

The raspberry fields were similar to the strawberry fields but with rows upon rows of raspberry bushes. These rows were labelled with the months that they would be ready so we knew exactly where to head to for the best picks. The raspberries weren't as plentiful as the strawberries but there was enough to pick from to get some good ones. When it came to raspberries, John nor I knew how to look for a ripe one, but we figured it out along the way with the help from a family nearby teaching their children how to pick ripe raspberries!!!

Picking raspberries took a lot more concentration simply because we didn't know what we were looking for straight away! But once we found out, we knew we wanted ones that were easy to pull off without the stem and weren't too firm. There weren't that many raspberries either so we were really focused on looking for them. We settled for about a quarter of our punnet full as it was enough for just two of us anyway.

Fruit picking is a really relaxing and fun activity. It was so nice to casually walk through the rows, picking fruit and having a chat about what we could do with our pick when we got home. It's a really lovely way to spend a morning as a couple, a family or even alone! I'm considering going back by myself when the blueberries are open! The pricing was really good too. For the experience and how much you can get, it's completely worth a visit and I'd recommend checking out Cammas Hall Farm if you're in the London, Essex or Hertfordshire area or even finding your local one and seeing what's still available.

Have you visited a pick-your-own farm before?