Strawberry season now on!

Nearly 600 pick-your-own (PYO) farms across the UK are now open for business as the British strawberry season kicks off. Also on offer are gooseberries, broad beans, carrots, calabrese (the real name for broccoli), and spinach. Asparagus is traditionally available until Father’s Day, and rhubarb until the end of the month.

PYO Strawberries beat the rest for flavour and value for money

Come June, and strawberries take centre stage on PYO farms; it’s what they’re famous for. In the 70s they were a novelty, because supermarket transit and storage couldn’t cope with soft fruit, and people would buy from PYO farms to build up reserves in their chest freezers. Today, we see strawberries in the shops throughout the year, but nothing quite beats a sun drenched berry, plucked straight from the plant, and at prices that even today undercut the supermarkets, PYO strawberries still promise a lot.

• Value for money You can expect to pay around £3.50-£4 per kilo for PYO strawberries (almost half what you’d pay in many supermarkets).
  
  
• Unbeatable flavour - PYO fruit is picked when it’s ripe from the sun, with flavour that comes, in part, from absorbing micronutrients present only in the soil. The majority of supermarket fruit is grown in soil-less conditions and in a totally controlled environment under polytunnels.
  
  
• Variety right through the summer – You’ll find the familiar Elsanta and Sonata varieties in June, alongside favourites like Christine and Darlisette and up and coming stars including Figaro and Fenella. Later cropping varieties like Everest, Flamenco and Albion mean that you can still pick outdoor fruit right into September.
  
  
• Better for the environmnent – PYO means minimum packaging and zero food miles (apart from those you clock up when taking your harvest home). Growers also keep pesticides to a minimum, with biodiversity and beneficial insects encouraged by growing a wide range of varieties and crops.
  
  
• Picking & Storing tips – Choose fruit that’s red all over, and pluck at the stalk not by pulling the berry off it. This will help it keep for longer. Since the fruit is right it will last for 2-3 days in the fridge; avoid freezing unless you whiz it into a puree (or ice-cream!) first as the structure of the fruit doesn’t last well in the freezer. If you have a glut, use for jams, smoothies, coulis, salads, cakes, meringues, yoghurt or sorbets.

What's in season today?

Check out our in season page to see which crops are in season this month, and look through the rest of the year...

Pick Your Own is the best way to get the freshest and most delicious foods from field to fork. The only food miles are the ones which you take home with you!

Please use our map to find your nearest Pick Your Own farm; just type your postcode, town or county into the Location/Postcode search box. Alternatively use the Keyword Search to find specific crops or varieties.