Pick your own crop and fruits - Garsons, UK

This weekend I shifted to my cousin’s place at Farnborough, Hampshire. They had made a plan to go for Strawberry picking and I tagged along with them. This was my first time at such a place and I had no idea what to expect.

We drove from Farnborough to Esher to a place named as ‘Garsons’. They have a huge farm where a lot of crops and fruits are grown. They have an excellent range of vegetables variety from cauliflower and beans to green peas and potatoes. They also grow fruits– Strawberries, Gooseberries, Blackcurrant, Raspberries, Blackberries, Cherries and a lot more. The farm grows 5 types of flowers. Here, you can handpick the fruits and vegetables that you want, and take them home (obviously at a price), though its still fun to pick what you want.

We started from the Raspberry farm, started picking some. Some of the berries were a little too ripe. So when you are picking them, make sure they are just the right amount of red. From the Raspberries, we went to the Gooseberries. I had the delight of tasting Gooseberries for the first time. They are a little sour, a little sweet and definitely a once taste. Be very careful while picking these up – the bush is thorny. The blackcurrants are one fruit I have no intention of tasting every again.  We saw Cauliflowers, though had no intention to pick those up this time.  We did go to the crops section though. We checked out the Garden peas section. The same place had 3 different varieties – Garden peas, Mange Tout and Sugar snaps.

We then made our way to the top attraction – Strawberry farm. This is really fun. You would have to search for the strawberries amidst all the bushes. Pick up the red ones, but not too red. The dark red ones do not taste good. The normal red ones however are delicious. I had been buying strawberries from the Borough market for the past week and I had thought these were good, but the ones from the Garsons are very yummy. You would always remember their taste.

Garsons has a nice picnic spot where you can go and eat the lunch or snacks you have brought with you. Its very sunny these days, so if you have an umbrella, please bring it along. The picnic spot has benches, though on weekends there is a lot of crowd, and its better to bring your own mats that you can use. In case you are planning on eating the picked fruits, please remember to pay for the same. The picnic spot can be found if you drive through the Ring Road across the farm, there are sign posts which would guide you. Or you can always give a shout and ask.

People who would like to visit please note the timings – Mon – Sat : 9 am to 6 pm and Sundays : 11 am to 5 pm.

Hope you have a nice time there.

Garsons  has two branches – Esher and Titchfield.

Address for Esher: Winterdown Road, Esher, Surrey, KT10 8LS

For the complete list of crops grown please visit - http://www.garsons.co.uk/Esher/PickYourOwn/CropAtoZ/documents/CropCalendar.pdf

For the map of the Garsons farm to know where you can pick the crops - http://www.garsons.co.uk/Esher/PickYourOwn/CropAtoZ/documents/CropMap2010.pdf

Visit http://www.garsons.co.uk for more details on how to reach via public transport and other details

Note: Tomorrow they are opening for cherry picking. If you want to get the best, please be there at 9 am. Last year, they mentioned, all the cherries were gone in just 4 days. So please don’t wait for the weekend. You might miss the fun. I know I will.