Strawberry Picking in London

Every so often, the hustle and bustle of London gets to me, and I start to crave the countryside. I grew up in the countryside, I'm used to spending my summers down by the lake or playing in the fields, so it's no wonder that sometimes city life gets to me. I'd been feeling claustrophobic in London recently, probably due to the stuffy, hot weather, so I grabbed some friends and headed slightly out of town to indulge in one of my favourite childhood activities - strawberry picking. 

We didn't want to venture too far - it was baking in London that day and we didn't fancy cooking ourselves in the car for too long - so we headed to Parkside Farm, where every summer they open up their 'pick your own' section of the farm. Parkside Farm is located just outside of London (as in, just past the infamous cockfosters), but it feels a million miles away so it's perfect for us Londoners looking to escape, without actually escaping. 

The farm is huge, sprawling across 50 acres so even when it's busy there's plenty of room for you to amble through the strawberry fields undisturbed. We went on an extremely hot Saturday during summer holidays so I expected to have to fight my way to the good strawberries, but we were able to walk around largely undisturbed, even sitting down to have a quick picnic. The farm also offers so much more than strawberries. When we visited in early August, we were able to pick strawberries, raspberries, plums, blackberries, corn, beetroot, onions, spinach, french beans, courgettes and red currants - so there was absolutely no need for us to buy any fruit or veg in the supermarket for about two weeks afterwards and because everything is fresh, it tasted so much better than the stuff you find in the supermarket and also lasted so much longer. 

After we'd spend a couple of hours picking all of the fruit we could carry, we headed back to the farm shop and picnic area to indulge in some fresh strawberry ice cream - we had earned it after all! Before heading back in to London to enjoy the fruits of our labour, literally.