When you live in a city like London, sometimes you find yourself craving somewhere other than city streets and hustle and bustle occasionally. Luckily, in London there are plenty of options just outside the city, where you can get your fix of fresh air and green stuff.
Garsons Farm Esher is one of those places. I’d heard about the farm from my boss initially, who had headed there with his family to do berry picking and when I saw the photos of strawberry fields and raspberry orchards I knew I had to get down there at some point in the summer.
Luckily, our lovely friends Cheney and Lloyd frequent the farm every month or so, so offered to take us down there over the bank holiday weekend.
The farm is brilliant, just a big amazing vegetable drive-through. You make your way through the farm by car, stopping at the various stop-off points depending on what you want to pick. The veggies on offer vary depending what season you go in. We got to choose from; onions, potatoes, marrow, courgettes, cabbage, apples, raspberries, blueberries, cucumbers and strawberries.
Below are the cabbages… I could literally frame the shot below. Who knew cabbages were so pretty?!
The kind of lovely to just walk around and pick your own stuff (straight off the tree, or from the ground) and know you’re going to be able to cook it all up later. Maybe you take that for granted if you’re a country bumpkin, but it’s quite a novelty if you live in the city!
The best bit was by far the strawberry field. We each filled up our own mini-buckets full to the top and then the entire weekend all Pad and I did was eat strawberries. And not just lame strawberries, proper ones. Massive and red and amazing.
By the end of the morning we had so much stuff we could barely carry it all (see the green bags in the photo below). When you’ve got all the stuff you’re after you simply go weigh it at one of their weigh stations and pay for your stuff. And then you stand their gobsmacked as you see how little they charge you. We paid £18 and we got SO MUCH STUFF. All those bags in the photo below are full to the brim with fruit and veg.
Do you have any secret hidden gems for escaping your local city? I’d love for you to share them 🙂