Of all the food “causes” that don’t have a day, week, fortnight or month dedicated to them pick-your-own is surely the most worthy.

A punnet or two of fruit, tasted in situ before self-harvesting, from your local PYO farm is fresher, tastier and more eco-friendly than supermarket produce, as it hasn’t been subjected to packaging, transport and cooling.

PYO farms offer hundreds of varieties of fruit — many regional. You may struggle to find Worcester berries, tayberries (ideal for jam) and jostaberries in the local supermarket, but many PYO farms grow them from late August.

Late raspberries and strawberries, blackberries, plums and damsons are ripe for plucking now, as are apples and pears, which stay in their prime through most of September.

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BACKGROUND

• Top 10 beers at the Great British Beer Festival

• Five of the best food trails in England

• 10 thrifty tips in the kitchen

• 10 ways to get kids growing vegetables

• Britain's 10 coolest seaside restaurants

PYO Recipes

• Greengage and almond tart

• Redcurrant and blackberry smash

• Ramsay's plum and almond tartlets

• Sweetcorn blinis with aubergine and tomato

• Summer berry recipes

Related Internet Links

• Real Food Directory

• Organic Box Finder

The apple harvest at Clives Fruit Farm in Worcestershire includes local varieties such as Worcester as well as Red Windsor, Braeburn – watch out New Zealand - Russet, Scrumptious and Cox. Clives also sells its own fruit juices – an award-winning Conference pear juice and a mulled apple juice - to the local Waitrose.

There used to be about 10,000 PYO farms in the UK until a decline in the 1980s, largely prompted by EC bureaucracy and supermarkets offering year-round fresh produce.

Hackers Fruit Farm in Cambridgeshire was forced to close its strawberry fields forever after more than £10,000 worth of fruit was stolen in a year. Earlier this year, farm manager Mark Spight said he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw one family sitting down in the field, with a bowl of water to wash their strawberries and another bowl of cream for dipping.

Today, there are about 1,000 PYO farms, many close to big cities, with farm shop and cafe attached.

To find a PYO farm near you visit pick-your-own.org.uk

Ten of the best PYO farms in England

ESSINGTON FRUIT FARM, Staffordshire

PYO here includes plums, raspberries, damsons, gooseberries, purple Marion berries, and rhubarb. But Essington also has a wonderful selection of vegetables to pick in September, including runner beans, sweet corn, broccoli, lettuce and cabbage. The shop is open all-year round and sells the farm’s own or local meat as well as cakes, soups, pies and ready meals all cooked on the farm.

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