Picking the fruit for many is a traditional summer pastime, which starts in childhood and can last a lifetime.  Picking fruit with mum, tasting a blackcurrant for real rather than as Ribena, helping to ‘top and tale’ at home, watching how rich colours, textures and flavours combine and tasting the final wondrous concoction create memories and stories that are passed down through the generations.

However, Nature’s sweet berries aren’t the only produce that is ready for picking this time of year.  Vegetables such as spinach, courgettes, purple sprouting broccoli and broad beans grown in rows of different shades of green invite you to pick, twist and snap off leaves, stalks and pods destined for al fresco summer salads and the BBQ season.

Over the years, certain vegeatable and fruits fall out of favour only to enjoy a culinery renaissance years later.  Gooseberries and broad beans are two such examples whose unique attributes and flavours have once again become a focus for magazine features, seasonal recipes and restaurant menus.

Bursting with phosphorous, vitamin A and C and notably rich in protein, broad beans date back to stone-age times.  According to the Vegetarian Society they were offered in marriage to ensure the birth of a baby son and were also important enough to warrant the death sentence for their theft from open fields – PYOers beware!

When you pick broad beans, make sure the pods are pale green and feel soft and tender.  The common mantra for all PYO crops is to eat it as soon as possible to ensure best flavour and this is definitely true for broad beans, as the carbohydrates quickly turn to sugar and change the flavour of the bean. They do however freeze very successfully if prepped soon after gathering. 

In terms of cooking, they are used extensively in Middle Eastern dishes while in Italy the raw beans are often served with pecorino cheese, in Greece they are traditionally eaten raw and in the UK served with parsley sauce as an accompaniment to ham.

Food stylist and writer, Tonia George offers the following inspirational recipe ideas. Old and young broad beans alike appreciate a bit of grassy extra virgin olive oil or salted butter and come alive with a splattering of chopped mint or parsley. Their sweet flavour lends itself well to all salted pork products: a few nuggets of crisp, fried bacon, chorizo or pancetta work wonders with cooked beans; young, raw beans prefer thin slices of Serrano ham. Crumbled chunks of milky Feta, creamy goat’s cheese, Parmesan flakes and hot chunks of Halloumi all have something to offer too. Try spreading sourdough toast with buffalo Ricotta, then top with garlic- and basil-braised broad beans.

So here’s to a summer of locally grown seasonal fruit and veg bursting with flavours.  Whether in or out of favour, give them a try!

Selected for flavour and planted in stages to ensure the crop lasts from May – September, we grow three varieties of strawberry on Millets Farm for the PYO – El Santa, Evie 3 and Premier. El Santa is a popular variety stocked by supermarkets, however, when compared with its PYO counterpart the difference is simply hard to ignore.  The PYO berry is far superior in flavour and texture as it has not suffered any of the dehydration or loss of vital fruit sugars that takes place between picking and reaching the supermarket shelf – in some instances 3 days. 

So, having picked some strawberries and eaten a few on the way home – who could resist? – what fate awaits the remaining stash of sweet berries?  Well, plenty of people make jam of course, as well as coulis, sorbets and ice creams that can be frozen and enjoyed through the summer and beyond.  Added to museli or cereal makes a scrumptious change to the hum-drum of breakfast…..whizzed up with milk, ice cream and yoghurt for kids milkshakes is a cooling and healthier mid morning or afternoon snack.  Its hard to beat Eton mess and summer pudding for dessert and drinks wise, a fresh strawberry daiquiri is divine as well as a handful of strawbs in a jug full of Pimms – there’ll be plenty of that enjoyed during Wimbledon, I bet!

For those who are a little more adventurous in the kitchen and like to try something new, we have partnered with award winning chef, Mark Chandler of the White Hart in Fyfield, to create a series of recipe cards that will be available from the farm shop and downloadable from our Millets Farm Centre website.  The Gratin of Summer Berries with Zesty Lemon Cake is available now in time for the PYO blackcurrants and redcurrants, which will be ready to pick in July. 

Just like Wimbledon, strawberries are affected by the weather – too cool and they get colds, too hot and they spoil in an instant.  This week’s weather forecast predicts a mix of sunny intervals and full sunshine.  So fingers crossed for cooler nights – 10 /12 degrees please – as this will create the optimum growing conditions for our strawberries. 

Looks like I’ll be scoffing lots of them this week, hope you do too!

In the mid 1970s, John Carter started one of the earliest Pick Your Own (PYO) enterprises in the UK.  He’d seen the idea in the USA and planted five acres of land on his South Oxfordshire farm to grow strawberries for people to pick and enjoy during the summer months. 

PYO was very successful, albeit seasonal, and over the years Millets has continued to diversify and has expanded to include a farm shop, restaurants, garden centre and seasonal attractions such as a Maize Maze. 

The PYO, however, has remained a core part of the farm’s set up, despite the lure of cheap all-year-round imports in the supermarkets, and in recent years has experienced a growth in popularity.  Local people are returning to the fields to pick locally grown fruits and veg at the farm – and when at their most delicious – from field to fork in as little time as possible, thereby preserving flavour and texture.

The PYO season at Millets Farm Centre now lasts from May to September and includes over 30 different varieities of soft fruit and orchard fruit – as well as vegetables such as sweetcorn and purple sprouting.  We continue to introduce new varieities that are selected for flavour not shelflife and employ different growing methods such as poly tunnels and table tops for strawberries. This protects the crop from the unpredictable British summer weather as well as our customer’s backs!

The weather over the past few weeks has generated a bumper harvest of deliciously sweet strawberries – warm days followed by cool nights have ensured that the berries look and taste perfect.  Elsanta is our main crop, which together with Premier and Evie will guarantee our strawberries last not forever, but until the end of the summer at least!

Til I scoff my next strawberry fresh from the patch, keep picking!