We have a pick your own farm up the road, and I have never even thought of going there... until I was desperate for something to do to amuse the girls. So after a scary morning on the beach, in a howling wind (OK, about F4 but it was whistling through my coat!) watching the kids in swimming costumes jumping up and down in the surf, we decided to go and get some raspberries to make some jam. We went home, everyone had a bath to get rid of the sand from between their toes, and headed off for an afternoon of joy in the fruit fields. As we arrived in the car park the rain started in earnest... oh joy indeed!
We collected some bags and punnets to collect fruit and veg. Demands to get carrots came to naught as the carrots seemed to be about a mile away, whereas the blackcurrants were right by the gate. So we got enough of those to make a couple of jars of jam (test out the jam programme on the bread machine!) and moved onto the plums. At this point the notices exhorting people to pay before they ate the fruit faded away, and plum fever set in... I was a bit concerned that quite so many unripe plums would lead to tummy problems, but these two are clearly made of sterner stuff than me! So a couple of pound of plums were collected, and the suggestion that these would make nice jam was dismissed immediately! Then we found the raspberries, which was what I really wanted. We did actually pick more than we ate - just... we were just getting into the swing when a tractor arrived out of the misty drizzle to tell us that it was closing time and we needed to climb aboard to be taken back to the gate. We had barely a pound of raspberries, but again any suggestion of jam making was greeted with looks of astonishment - "No, Grandma, what these raspberies need is to be covered with cream!" And so they were. My promise to give up all dairy products fell rapidly, directly after the discovery that the dairy-free whipping cream I had selected tasted like lightly boiled talcum powder, so it was back to the regular double cream and very nice it was too.
And as cheap days out goes, it wasn't bad. I spent about six quid on fruit, which has resulted in a couple of pound of blackcurrant jam, a very generous raspberry dessert and enough plums to keep us going (in every respect) for about a fortnight. The young ladies were occupied for a whole afternoon, and we walked a couple of miles which is exercise that I very much need. So a good idea all round... and we still have to go back to get the carrots!
