Pick Your Own
Enjoy picking fresh fruit at the new fruit farm – next to the Zoo. Come and pick your own from mid May to September. Planted on raised level growbags, no backbreaking bending!
£9 per Kg
10am – 4:30pm
Open every day in the Summer Holidays
For updates or find out what is picking at the moment, head to the What is Picking? page of the PYO Facebook page
On site facilities
All day free parking
Free use of Picnic Area
Cold & Hot Drinks
On site
Snacks
Ice Creams
Porta loos
Table Top
The strawberry today is as popular as ever before and whilst they can be easily grown in the ground in the garden we have planted them on a raised level in growbags this has made the whole process of strawberry cultivation much easier.
This is known as tabletop growing and is what the commercial growers do around the country now. There are huge advantages to growing strawberries in this way including not needing to worry about soil borne diseases which can particularly affect strawberries, pests such as snails and slugs can not get to the top of the table, you can plant more plants for a given area and planting, watering, feeding and picking is so much easier too.
Additionally for the less able this method of picking and weeding doesn’t involve backbreaking bending.
Coir Substrates
Coir substrate is an organic and naturally occurring product used mainly as a growing media or soilless substrate for horticultural applications. Derived from the external husk (mesocarp) of a coconut, it is an environmentally renewable product which was originally a bi-product of the coir fibre industry.
Coconut products originate from the fruit of the coconut palm, Cocos Nucifera. Cocos Nucifera is traditionally known as a source of coconut fruit (edible), coconut milk and coconut oils.
In addition, the extraction of coir fibres can be used for the production of matting and netting, as well as a wide range of value-added products.
Keep the children amused
There is so much to be gained from picking fresh fruits and vegetables and many of us have happy childhood memories of doing just that. It is a wonderful way for children to get some fresh air whilst learning and having fun – and there’s a tasty treat at the end.
Children quickly catch onto picking the biggest and ripest of fruits and dropping them into the basket. But the fun doesn’t stop there because children just love to help prepare the fruits and get involved with cooking when you get home. You’ll find that they will be nagging you for a return visit!
Not only do they look good and taste good – they do you good too!
Aside from the exercise and well-being obtained from being out in the fresh air, fresh fruit are nutritionally good for you too.
Fruit and vegetables are important in your diet and eating them gives your body a wide range of valuable nutrients like vitamins, fibre and antioxidants.
Just nine strawberries gives you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vitamin C and, at just 50 calories per 100g serving, eating healthily is a whole lot easier when the food tastes as glorious as strawberries.
Top Tips!
Picking
Storing
Strawberry Facts
- Strawberries were cultivated by the Romans as early as 200BC.
- In Medieval times strawberries were regarded as an aphrodisiac and soup made of strawberries, borage and soured cream was traditionally served to newly-weds at their wedding breakfast.
- In the 16th Century strawberries were sold in cone-shaped straw baskets, thus becoming one of the earliest packaged foods
- The strawberry is a small plant of the Rosaceae (Rose) family. All varieties of the strawberry plant belong to the Fragaria genus.
- The strawberry plant has seeds on the outside skin, rather than having an outer skin around the seed as most berries do. They do not, however, normally reproduce by seeds.
When the fruit is developing the plant sends out slender growths called runners. These look like strings and grow on the ground sending roots into the soil. These in turn produce new plants which grow and bear fruit.
