Strawberry Picking at Wymeswold Fruit Farm

Exams are finally over in our house. Phew – we made it!! And now we can all begin to enjoy ourselves again. Within minutes of walking in from her final exam, our eldest had the wheelie bin open by the front door and was carting books, past papers and revision notes from every corner of the house, and unceremoniously binning them.

I now have a teenager who has time on her hands. And, with the weather being so gorgeous, I suggested we go strawberry picking.

I discovered this fruit farm years ago with a friend, and we picked there a few times together, our girls running round and eating as many strawberries as they were putting in their baskets, but we had not visited for years.

Reckoning I could remember the way, we set off, minus the sat nav, and managed to make it there with no wrong turns – off to a good start then. The guy at the counter handed us a basket and directed us across the field and through an opening to the next field.

Even though it was late in the day, and they had obviously been busy, there were loads of lovely, red, fragrant strawberries on the plants.

It took us no time at all to fill the basket. Some of the berries were larger than a tomato.

We filled the basket pretty much as full as we could get it then took it to be weighed. The total cost was £8.10 and for that we got nearly 3kg of strawberries and the fun of picking them!

Although we relished the challenge, eating nearly 3kg of strawberries before they go off was tough, especially as we then ate out quite a lot over the following few days. We kept them in a cool room because they are so much nicer when they are not chilled, and they lasted really well, but just before they started to go over we hulled the last of the berries. Tipping them into the food processor with a little sugar and a tablespoon or two of lemon juice, we whizzed them into a sauce. Some of the sauce went into the fridge to be served over yoghurt and ice cream or poured into a glass and topped up with cloudy apple juice and sparkling water. I froze the remainder in little pots, ready to be brought out, one at a time, once strawberry season is over, when it will be nice to remind ourselves of the taste of summer.