I fondly and vividly remember summer weekday afternoons from my childhood whereby my mother and grandmother, would pick my sister and I up up from school and take us strawberry picking. I think we taste tested just as many as we picked, and we always left the fields with strawberry stains on our school dresses.
As an adult, I have always felt disappointed at the size and tase of the strawberries that are now so readily available in the shops. This is due to the ones I recall from the afternoons spent strawberry picking during my childhood. They were as BIG as purses, and I can still taste their sweetness on my tongue. Perhaps we now grow different varieties here in the UK from those I remember, I just know I have never seen or tasted them quite the same since.
Strawberry picking is something I still love to do each summer, and last year my mother and I discover a sweet little strawberry farm just off of the A264, between Horsham and Crawley. We went back there only last week, and while their strawberries may be small they are extremely sweet and juicy, so much so in fact they converted Darcie a non strawberry lover into a strawberry lover.
Rupert was left in charge of the basket.
However just as quickly as we were filling it, our pickings were disappearing as Rupert was doing a spot of tase testing!
He did make me chuckle as he was walking along mumbling to himself about the strawberries plants being spikey on his legs.
Meanwhile, Darcie mostly enjoyed sitting around eating her fill of strawberries, practising her standing and emptying the contents of Nanny’s bag.
It was lovely to be out strawberry picking with my mother and the littles in tow, remembering all those years ago when I was little being out with my mummy, sister and Nanny doing the same thing.
Once we were satisfied that our basket was adequately filled, we made our way down to the onsite tea room for some light refreshments. There was plenty of seating in the tea room both inside and out, and four legged friends were welcome.
We picked up a few bits from the well stocked farm shop before heading home, most importantly, cream and meringues to make an Eaton mess to be enjoyed later that evening.
Arriving home, Rupert took the basket of strawberries off of the counter top and went to settle himself down in an armchair and continued to nibble away. He did at least save enough for me to make our dessert and there were a few left over for a breakfast smoothie the following day.
Love for now
Emma x