Saturday, August 04, 2007

Fruits Of Summer

I have spent more than 6 years over all in the UK since pre-university and yet I have never ever went fruit picking during the summers.

It is not that I did not want to, only the fact that I have always gone back home for the summer hols during my undergraduate years and of course, during that time, one did not particularly look for family oriented activities, which is exactly what a day out picking fruits is.

But on Saturday, a friend and her family mentioned that they were going and I thought that it was high time that I do something about my 'inexperience'.

The farm that we went was near Enfield town, a farm called Parkside Farm. It was a beautiful day; sunny but windy too, so one did not feel too hot doing all that 'labour'. We arrived there at noon and straight away went to the picnic area to have lunch with them.

And then we went to 'work'...

First, there were the strawberries.

I have an allergy to these - so didn't fancy picking too many of them although Mr S did go back here later to fill our strawberry bucket..






Then, there were the blackberries.

As you can see, the ones that are not ripe yet look similar to raspberries, but as they ripen, they change colour and become fat and engorged with juice!






Then, there were the sweet corns.

There were signs at the entrance stating that the visitors to the farm were not allowed to eat the fruits and veges before paying for them but there were some visitors who behaved appallingly - yup, that's right, we caught some women eating the sweetcorns right after they picked them! And they had finished about 5-6 between them! I was told later by a friend that these taste real good freshly picked, eaten straight away uncooked, but seriously...



My eldest scrutinising his blackberry juice-smeared hand - he was looking for an insect that he thought was crawling on his hand.



Then there were the raspberries.

There were several types of them but I really prefer the Magda and Autumn Bliss variety - their stems and leaves were not as prickly as one other type - I cannot recall the name for that one at the moment. The Magda and Autumn Bliss variety were seriously yummy!




Funnily enough, although I was wearing a pristine white top and also handling a lot of ripe blackberries and raspberries - my shirt was just as pristine when I left the farm a few hours later! Bravo, eh?

As we left the farm, in the car, this was how the boys look like:



We didn't go home straight away, however. We went to a Chinese Supermarket near to our house to get some galangal and tamarind, and after waking my lil one up so that we can all go together into the shop, this was the scene they made:


Lastly, the fruits of our labour in our kitchen...



Now, all I have to do is to find a variety of ways to finish them off; eat them plain, with some fresh cream (my favourite!), make cheesecake topping..etc. etc. etc....

9 comments:

CheAyu said...

Child labour!

Hehe.. they look so cute picking fruits... tapi nak buat apa fruits yang banyak2 tu?

CheAyu said...

pos balik msia skit aa

M-O-M said...

now u've made this pregnant mom terlioq...how now?...

we used to PYO rite after boot sale...n i was pregnant that time...dgn kebuluqnye...melahap la all the berries sampai kenyang baru pick for take-home...he he he..:D apples, pear and plum picking pun best tapi tak baper best nak mkn rite away...

nanti dah cooked/bake smthg with the berries...don't 4get to post here eh!

D said...

i was sure from the very beginning, surely youre gonna make cheesecake!

all jazzed up said...

blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, raspberry sherbets, trifles, etc... eee bestnya!!! freeze them and you can puree them later! I miss summer berries :( they're so bladi expensive here.

cutiepie said...

WOW!!! interesting weekend ..

i wonder why we have seen this particular activity in malaysia?? hmmmm .. enjoy your fruit of labour!!!

:)

Nik Farizah said...

I used to go for strawberry, pear, peach, apple and orange picking while studying in the US. But if i'm not mistaken, we could eat as much fruits as we wanted while picking for free, and only pay for whatever we took home. ooohh.. i miss those time.

Sue said...

berry berry nice :)

Halwafy said...

ayu: hmm..takde mood pulak nak buat apa2 with these fruits - makan gitu je lah and I froze some as well for later...

fruits ni senang bruised and jadi busuk tau..jgn harap le nak pos ke Msia..you'll get a parcel of mulch!

m-o-m: I heard around Warwick and Coventry ada byk fruit farms like this ye...rugi betul I tak pergi during my uni years...

But this one takleh makan dulu la..must pay first. I think it's because fruits tak byk sgt kot thn ni...due to the weather, perhaps..

D: You're rite..:) But I'm trying to reduce weight la...should not be eating cheesecakes...camna??

alljazzedup: Thanks for those ideas!!..Still undecided though because bab masak2 ni, I have to be in the mood for it...:) We'll have to see!

mudpie: I was thinking the same thing...tapi for org Msia, I'm sorry to say, must follow like this farm i.e. charge dulu baru boleh makan/masuk kebun...or else..nobody will end up paying! :)

nikfarizah: yeah..I've heard of places like that too - i.e. eat all you want, just pay for those you bring home..but I think the fruits tak byk sgt this year due to the cold and wet summer..so maybe that's why we were not allowed to do that...

minah celoteh: :) I agree! Had a berry berry nice time too...