Strawberry Fields

A few weeks ago Clare had the great idea of going strawberry picking, and Dave found a place in Esher where you can pick your own... so we met up on Saturday morning and headed out to Garson's Farm. It is a bit late in the season for British strawberries, but the ones we found were very sweet if not fully red. They have all sorts of crops for pick your own - courgettes, raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, sweetcorn, cabbage, spinach, onions, kohl rabi, french beans, sunflowers, dahlias, and gladioli.



We found the berries the most interesting of course! We moved on to the raspberry picking after strawberries. It's a delicate art to pick the berries without getting too much juice on your fingers.



Inevitably any damaged berries must be sampled instead...



We had a bit of fun around the farm! Dave had seen some cyclists stopping by the roadside on his way home from work picking some wild blackberries from the brambles, so we took a spare punnet and picked some free berries. It was the most fun of all, as the fruit was plentiful, sweet and fully ripened in the sun.



Here's Dave's fondue set! None of us had had a fondue in years. We had a taste for Gruyere and Emmental after our Loire trip, so we decided having company was a good reason to give the recipe a go. A very satisfying lunch after a good day berry picking.