Strawberry Picking at Hill Farms

English strawberries are amazing and the ultimate sign that summer is here. Eventhough it is towards the end of strawberry season my friend Juliet and I wanted to take the kids out for the day and pick our own berries. We went to a place called Hill Farm just outside of Alwalton.

With my new mobile phone's camera I've been able to take lots of fun on the go pictures and I grabbed a quick snap of the three of us before we started berry picking. Harrison looks so excited....

The kiddos - Harrison, Ella, Addison and Robyn - ready to get picking.

There was one more patch of strawberries left to pick from way in the back of the farm so we had a bit of hike to get there, but there were still quite a few left. I think the kids ate about as many as we collected in our baskets. I was going to be strict with the kiddos about not eating any but Juliet was such a dear and told them to go ahead and eat a bunch. I did happen to sneak a couple myself and they were the absolute best berries I'd ever had. The strawberry fairies must have gotten upset with me though as they sent a bee to get stuck in my toe and I literally had to pull it out of my toe. I can tell you that number one - you should never wear sandals while berry picking and number 2 - it really, really hurts to have a bee stuck in your toe. I thought I remembered some old adage that mud would take the sting out of a bite so I spit on some dirt and rubbed it on (sorry I know that sounds really gross but I was desperate and we were a long ways from the car.)

I managed to make my way back out in the field and get Harry back on track with collecting berries instead of eating them all. He actually did quite well and nice call on my part for putting him in a black shirt as anything else would be stained beyond belief.

After the kids got plenty bored and Juliet and I got our containers filled with berries we headed back to the farm's little picnic and play area.

Then Juliet and I took turns watching the kids while they played so we could go pick some raspberries as well. The play equipment was all made up of what looked like old tires and stretched out smooth rubber from this crazy swing to the slide and some other climbing frames.

Ella and Addison had fun being queens of the mountain.

For our first and probably only English strawberry picking it turned out to be quite a fun experience despite my bee sting. We collected about 4-5 pounds of strawberries for about 11 GBP and I got about 2 pints of raspberries for about 4 GBP. Now they were all so fresh that we ate as many as we could in the following day or two but then I had to freeze the rest of them to make jam or a crumble later on. I'm looking forward to when the sweet corn is ready...about 1 1/2 months later than when it is in prime peak in the midwest US.