If you’ve been a reader of this little space since the beginning, you’ll know that I’ve mentioned wanting to go berry picking every single summer since Cider with Rosie first took shape. I included it on a summer to-do list I wrote back in 2012 (I can’t for the life of me find the post I’m thinking of to link to, which is probably just as well really!), and yet, despite promising ourselves we’ll go each year when the sun begins to shine, we never quite get around to it.

But no more! We finally went (we being my little sister and I, who I’m spending as much time with as possible now before she disappears off to Tanzania for most of the summer), and it was even lovelier than I’d hoped.

I think to be honest, you’d be hard pressed to find a more idyllic summer activity than that of berry picking. Wandering up and down the rows of strawberry, raspberry and gooseberry plants armed with a basket or two, scouring the beds for the ripest looking fruit, then carefully snapping each berry off its stem- it’s summer encapsulated. The strawberry patch smells caramelly sweet, and the temptation to taste as you pick is almost too hard to resist. Resist we did though, and the wait was worth it.

After loading our baskets with almost 3 kilos of fruit and paying for the lot, we sat down in a patch of sunshine and feasted on the freshest fruit I’ve ever tasted…plus a treat of yoghurt and forest fruit gelato from Danieli’s to boot.

The very essence of a beautiful British summer in every sweet mouthful.

{Past seasonal ‘To Dos’}
Try this :: homemade ice-cream.
Try this :: gallery hopping.
Try this :: practise a skill.
Try this :: festive baking.
Try this :: get lost in the countryside.
Try this :: have a hot chocolate picnic.

p.s. The berry farm we visited was Crockford Bridge Farm in Addlestone, & my dress is a bargain find from here, of all places!