Garsons Farm – Esher | Day’s Out

Picking fruits and vegetables has been a favorite family activity ever since I was a child. Now I want to carry that on with my family! Fruit picking is such a simple, fun day out for everyone of all ages. Making your way through the crops, filling up baskets with delicious yummies for a relatively low price.

“Garsons is an award-winning Garden Centre and Farm Shop with locations at Esher in Surrey and Titchfield in Hampshire. At Esher you’ll also find one of the UK’s largest Pick Your Own Farm and Poolclean, spa and pool centre, while Titchfield is home to aquatics and reptile specialist Aquajardin.”

The pick your own in Esher, Surrey, is one of the best PYO farms near London – and the UK’s largest, with 28 crops of fruit, vegetable and flower crops open from June to October. You can pick strawberries in the summer and hunt for that perfect pumpkin for Halloween! All year fun! In addition to the PYO Farm, you’ll find a large Garden Centre, Restaurant and a Farm Shop. There are restrooms and baby changing facilities within the Garden Centre.

“Garsons PYO Farm now requires a minimum spend payment of £4 per adult (age 17 and older) at the entrance kiosk. Hold onto the receipt because that minimum spend will be refunded against any produce you pick and purchase.”

You can walk around the PYO farm, but the crops are very spread out across 150 acres so I’d recommend driving to the fields. Once you’ve made the minimum spend payment, you can also leave and re-enter the PYO farm throughout the day – just show the receipt at the entrance kiosk.

The dirt road around the PYO farm is one-way, so pick up a crop map at the entrance kiosk or the garden centre to plan out which crops you’d like to stop at along the way. By most crops, there is a parking area and a kiosk with small blue punnets (that hold approximately 1 kg of produce) or large green punnets (that hold about 3 kg) which you can take free of charge. Plastic bags are also provided for vegetable picking.

On our most recent visit, there were kiosks for payment on the way out of the PYO field. Credit cards are accepted and, again, make sure to have your minimum spend receipt to hand to be refunded that amount against your purchase.

On our most recent visit we took my Nan for a cheeky day out because we hadn’t seen her in a while. It’s was boiling hot. We primarily went for Strawberries, but when we got there found that Cherries had become available too. My Nan struggled to keep her excitement to herself – she has a rather fond liking for Cherries!

When we arrived, the Strawberries were on a table-top – so much easier for adults, but slightly harder for the little ones (more toddler height) if they can’t reach up that high. We spent a good chunk of time each filling up a punnet full to the brim.

Loving the strawberries

After picking strawberries, we made our way to the cherries. The cherry orchard is kept in a giant tunnel to protect them – it is hot in there! My Nan was in her element, within seconds she had filled her punnet. Molly kept trying to grab and eat every cherry she saw, as well as the odd leaf or two!

Can I eat them all mum?

After we had picked a crazy amount of fruit we had a walk around the garden centre, lunch at the restaurant and ended the trip by going into the farm shop.

It was such a lovely day just spending time with my Nan and walking down memory lane. A day full of love, laughter,nostalgia and making new memories that’ll be cherished forever.