You haven’t tasted a proper strawberry until you’ve picked your own!

The British summer wouldn’t be complete without a bowl of fresh-picked English strawberries and cream.

Picking your own strawberries ensures you can enjoy your favourite variety of fruit at its freshest.

Although a good strawberry can be enjoyed by itself, check out the recipes for ideas on transforming them into home-made ice cream, summer desserts, and of course the best-tasting jam.

Don’t be shy of picking more than you can eat (!) – freshly-frozen strawberries are perfect for making jam, smoothies and ice-cream throughout the year.

Varieties

Taste is a very personal thing. Flavour can vary with such factors as weather and the stage of the crop, and so our map and staff will direct you to the crops that are best on the day you visit.

Some varieties have better keeping qualities than others and so it’s best to ask the advice of our staff if you need to keep the fruit for a special function and not eat them straight away.

• Elsanta (early to mid-season) – a very ‘strawberry shape’ and a long shelf-life, and so is often found in the supermarkets.
• Rhumba (early)
• Centenary (early to mid-season) – newbie for 2019 and hot favourite in the supermarkets.
• Hapil (mid) – an outstanding flavour and a distinctive shape. Hapil is exclusive to PYO farms.
• Florence (mid to late season) – a good keeper and, as with Symphony, must be picked fully ripe to enjoy its flavour.
• Symphony (mid to late season) – a lovely looking fruit and keeps well. It needs to be picked fully ripe to appreciate its distinctive flavour.
• Malwina (late)

Jam strawberries are on differing fields selected as they become available throughout the season. Please see the map by the farm shop for up-to-date information at the time of your visit.

Top tips for strawberry picking

• Make sure you enjoy the best quality fruit – check out our advice on picking and storage.
• One kilo of strawberries will give 8 small portions, 6 average portions or 4 good portions. There are usually 50 strawberries to the kilo.
• Strawberries will last a lot longer with the hod (green leafy bit) still in.
• The best fruit is usually at the furthest corner of a patch of strawberries. Walk to the far corner before starting to pick, if you can resist that far!
• Washing the fruit is not recommended. Washed fruit goes soggy, and loses its flavour and natural shine.