Hewitts Farm

Knockholt Train Station

To keep myself in the know about what is going on around time I subscribed to TimeOut magazine.  A couple of weeks ago they had a column about "Pick Your Own" trips outside of town.  Essentially these are farms you can go to that allow you to pick your own fruit and veg then pay for what you take.  Right up my alley!  So, I had been marketing the idea around the office and with the new friends.  Got a few bites, so we planned for this morning.  Now, of course, any sort of planned outside activity is a risk in London, as no matter what it looks like in the AM, there is always a 60% chance of rain - more than likely.

Pear Trees

Anyway, the joint philosophy of my compadres was that you can not let the rain deter you here or you'll never do anything.  Nonetheless, this AM the weather was spectacular.  Hewitts Farm is about a 30 minute train ride south of London in the direction of Kent (only 5 pounds).  They have 76 acres of PYO (pick your own) with apples, pears, squash, pumpkins, plums, zucchini, corn, cauliflower, broccoli ... and in the Spring looks like berries, etc. as well.  So, off we went - two new GFs and one flatmate's Mom "Ro" from Yorkshire England.

The harvest, with fields in back

Of course, as luck would have it, on the way out the weather turned and it proceeded to drizzle the rest of the trip - and what a trip it was.  So, the instructions to get to this farm were to walk out of the station, follow the footpath, go across the golf course.  A bit vague and unusual, yet possible.  However, we were OUT THERE.  Not much around (can't believe there was golf!).  Anyway, it took us a while of tracking around up and down hills and through a little brush (even after 2 phone calls to the farm), but eventually we got there soaking wet and already covered in dirt, so more or less ready to go pick our own apples and veg!

Scenic walk back

So, I ended up getting a large zucchini for some bread, plenty of apples and pears for some sort of sweet I am going to make tomorrow, and squash, cauliflower, beets for this week's dinner (all pulled right from the ground!!) al for 3.90 pounds (this is like 6 bucks and would have been probably triple at my beloved Brough market).  Very cool.  Though I was soaked and my feet were like big white prunes (ewww) when I got home, I had a great time and would certainly go back, hopefully when it is sunny and strawberries are in season!