Fruits of Labour – Family Fun Day Fruit Picking

We’re very lucky to be working and living in the North West where there’s lots of greenery, farmers fields and from a little google search today, fruit picking, barns and farm shops! Working hard in the week, spending fewer hours with the family that I do listening to Radio X, the weekends are a perfect opportunity to come together and do something exciting. As long as it’s not raining 🙂 So after a quick brain storm with Mrs P, strawberry picking was our choice but as it’s out of season, Kenyon Hall Farm in Warrington assured us that Raspberry, Blackberry and Sweetcorn are. So we packed the KIA, donned appropriate footwear and took the M6 south for 30 minutes eager to pick some fruit. I’ve never been before but I’m told funny stories of when Beth and family enjoyed time in the fields when they were all a little younger. I need to point out at this moment, Dorothy loves fruit. Mrs P has fed her to love fruit and vegetables so we’re wondering how she’ll respond! On arriving we see a big barn, massive play area, sign saying £3 each Maize Maze and a farm shop bigger than I’ve ever seen. We can see sweetcorn fields, polytunnels and a stream of people plastic bucket in hand walking towards the fruitful fields. So we’re greeted by a very helpful farm hand who gives us plastic buckets, 500g in each, told about the £5 odd charge per kilo and pointed in the direction of fields. Walking across the fields, we’re asking Beth “Have you seen fields of dreams?” Rachel regails “If you build it they will come!” To be fair looking at the picture she has a point. Following the vintage looking signs we saw rows and rows of Raspberry trees/shrubs all put up against the wire lines to keep them proud and easy to pick. Bethany was off like a shot darting in between the rows filling up her bucket like a pre hibernating fruit loving bear. Rachel with some concoction in mind and ideas of Raspberry Vokda/Jam/Jelly/Cake (Delete as appropriate) was taking careful attention to pick the best ones while stopping Dorothy picking berries off the shrubs! Dorothy was picking up the raspberries from the branches and happily eating them while Rachel was bending down to grab more. We wondered why she was so berry coloured! Dorothy has learnt recently how to be very clever and her hand eye co-ordination is amazing now, despite the few crushed ones she had no issues picking them up without crushing the soft fruits. But it was ok as Bethany was filling up the other punnet and loving every minute and maybe a berry or 2, mmm Raspberries! This was the total haul minus what we ate! We made sure to leave enough room at the top to compensate for the few we all munched but it’s not cheap so we anticipate they account for some waste, tasty waste, in the cost. Next stop Blackberry picking! There was only two lines this time and it looked well picked. Again like a shot Beth was off, eager to collect as many Blackberries as possible and bring home the haul! Unfortunately it appears that we were too early! Despite having a completely empty shrub at home from Mrs P picking them dry, there was a lot of under ripe berries that we happily left ready for the next streams of people to enjoy. Dorothy was happy to eat Blackberries too, however they were very sharp in comparison to the Raspberries and she soon realised how sharp they were! Overall we had an amazing day collecting berries and the total haul was very cheap considering we spent a couple of hours picking and had two punnets at the end. I had a quick 20 minutes going through the corn field and unfortunately there were a couple unready but overall I got a massive corn on the cob haul! Maybe I should make some Chowder.Does this look like the face of someone who didn’t have a good time and enjoy the berries!We all had an amazing day and will definitely go back. Google Kenyon Hall Farm in Warrington if you live in the North West. It’s a great place to shop, eat, see pigs, pick fruit and buy plants. If you’re looking for a fun day out, try fruit picking. There will be a place near you and ask them what’s in season. I want to go strawberry picking, will have to wait till next year.  ]]>