Fruit Picking & Stripey Feet

Last week a friend recommended we visit a fruit picking farm near Bessan (www.cueillettedecaillan.com). We met my Aunty & Uncle on Tuesday am & set off to find it. After a few wrong turnings we pulled into what looked like a huge field of various different crops. At the entrance were wheel barrows and mini childrens barrows to take around. It’s free to enter and you pay by weight for each fruit/vegetable you’ve picked and leave with. I say leave with because you can snack away as you are picking (according to our french friends!).



So with our 2 year old happily pushing her own wheel barrow and the 8m old in the babybjorn carrier (all with sun hats & covered in sun cream I might add!) we set off to the berries section.



On our way we passed row upon row of courgettes, baby tomatoes, beef tomatoes and aubergines. We were delighted to find endless rows of cassis, framboises, groseilles and mures. My Aunty & Uncle were possessed with the urge to strip those rows bare and in a frenzy of picking filled their huge baskets quickly.



After we’d successfully picked a reasonable quantity we moved onto the vegetables where I demonstrated to our 2 year old how all the different vegetables grow. She was fascinated and enjoyed it thoroughly.



Finally after dragging my Aunty and Uncle away from the Cassis berries we made our way over to the Strawberry section where there were at least 3 varieties to choose from. My Aunty was like a child in a sweet shop. At this point I decided to go in the shade with the 8m old but my 2 year old had seen her favourite red fruit & spent the next half hour eating her way through my Uncles basket as fast as he could fill it.



We had 2 wheelbarrows full of produce between us and as the sun became a little too strong we called it a day. We made our way to the pay desk & separated all our goodies into separate baskets (picking up a few melons on the way). My huge wheelbarrow load came to an incredibly small 19euros. I couldn’t believe it. My boot was full to the brim and we set off home to make some homemade Jam.



What a wonderful experience for the children to pick your fruit in the morning (strawberries warm from the sun) then to make & label your own jam in the afternoon. Not surprisingly there were lots of grandparents there with their grandchildren and we can confirm this will be a regular haunt of us as it’s far cheaper than the market, less busy and so much fun.



As we sat down for our meal that evening, my mum and I felt some sort of satisfaction that we were eating food we’d picked fresh only that morning. I imagine this is what it is like to have your own garden…one day I will look forward to that! For now, we have found a little gem of a place & I hope you enjoy it too.

Thanks Susanne for the suggestion, looks very intresting and we will be going for sure. I am sure the kids will love it. My 4 years girl loves fruits and she will enjoy getting it by herself. Now we need to find a way to go:)

Thanks again

Great suggestion, Suzanne. I’m going to go there tomorrow. Thanks!

oh and I forgot to mention, I now have stripey feet - the one place I forgot to put suncream!