Living on the edges of the New Forest means there’s no shortage of places to forage. What you can’t guarantee is success, since tourists, speedy locals and naughty New Forest Ponies have a habit of cleaning out the hedgerows before anyone else gets a look in.
Craving a homemade blackberry crumble, we spent the first of October picking our own fruit and veg at a local farm. A very seasonal activity for the beginning of October, don’t you think!
It hadn’t actually crossed my mind that there might be pumpkins ready for the picking, since we were a little earlier in the season, but I positively squealed with delight when we pulled up to find the place swimming in pumpkins! They had a whole bunch out and ready to take, but of course I had to go searching for the perfect one in the pumpkin patch myself!
After a quick inquiry with staff as to what we could pick, we decided we wanted a bit of everything!
We started with blackberries, there’s something so quintessentially autumnal about blackberry picking, with stained fingertips and the odd bite of one that squishes at your touch. I could have spent hours picking them, but we stopped when we realised there was no way we could possibly eat them all in time!
To reach the pumpkin patch, we had to pick our way through the corn fields. Standing taller than even me at 5″10, it was quite spectacular. As we made our way through the crops, we plucked the odd perfect ear of corn from their stems. The thought of fresh buttered corn on it’s cob was making my stomach rumble!
Confession time – I’d never actually been to a pumpkin patch before! There was something so magical about standing in the middle of the patch, surrounded by pumpkins in every shape and size imaginable. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Cinderella stood there!
I picked a good medium sized pumpkin, not too big and not too small, and one dinky one for my windowsill too. I think Pumpkin Pie might be on the menu this month!
We rounded off with a little raspberry picking, luckily the rain began to fall at this point, otherwise we really would have gotten carried away! The raspberries were amazing, so much tastier than any I’ve ever had before! There was something so satisfying about the way they pop off their stalks, and negotiating with bumble bees over which ones we could take home!
We left with quite the haul, a punnet of raspberries, a punnet of blackberries, a dozen of the last strawberries on the farm, three ears of corn, two pumpkins, and a ‘decorative corn’ which has since joined my autumnal windowsill setup! We spent an hour and a half on the farm and this whole haul cost us exactly ten pounds, so it’s a super affordable way to while away the afternoon!
