A sweet culinary adventure in Buckinghamshire visiting Peterley Manor Farm.
As a child, I have fond memories of picking berries with my family while staying with relatives in Suffolk. It was a lovely activity that taught me, even at a young age, the tangible worth of effort – a little extra work rewarded with a punnet of blackberries to take home and enjoy. This past weekend, we ventured out into the sunshine to revive that feeling of childhood nostalgia, heading into the Buckinghamshire countryside in search of a farm shop and strawberry fields. I don’t recall picking strawberries as a child – not that I didn’t – but then I met a girl from the West Country who certainly does remembers berry picking with her family and the wonderful memories those experiences created that endured. Beyond the sweet culinary adventure, it was also a relief to escape the city for a short while and spend time in nature.
Our last strawberry adventure was a similar endeavour – picking berries out towards Cambridge in Buntingford. It was a new experience for me; to my West Country girl, it was a bourgeois London interpretation of the real thing, with berry bushes elevated so you could pick them comfortably without bending over. We left with two full punnets, but she still longed for the authentic berry‑picking experience. The fields at Peterley Manor Farm finally satiated the lady from Bristol – the strawberries tucked away in low‑lying bushes close to the ground. If we were going to enjoy a strawberry Eton mess that evening, we’d have to get our hands and knees dirty and find those berries the traditional way. We were battling fellow strawberry pickers, the natural lethargy of the weekend, and a high temperature that had begun to kill the fruit long before we arrived.
It’s a wonderful stretch of countryside to visit, and surprisingly close to London – who knew a berry adventure was less than thirty minutes from my small flat in the suburbs? The farm itself offers a charming farm shop stocked with fresh meats and a deli counter serving some truly excellent handmade pastries. Our plan was simple: pick our berries and explore the shop afterwards. The summer heat had certainly taken its toll on the crops; the plants were small, and we weren’t entirely optimistic about filling our punnets. Instead, we decided to team up, using our combined adulthood experience from the previous summer to fill a single tray. They were definitely eat‑the‑same‑day strawberries – no sweet treats to stretch across the weekend – but they had a wonderful taste and colour. What more could you ask for.
The punnets are sold by weight, and we walked away with a single tray of berries to enjoy at a reasonable price. The farm shop, with its delicious range of indulgent treats, offered berry‑flavoured meringues and a lovely selection of cream to accompany our haul. It rounded off our culinary adventure perfectly and managed to satisfy the girl from the West with her eye for authenticity – the only lament being the heat, which had tempered the growth of the plants and the abundance of strawberries on the day. Buckinghamshire has inspired some wonderful culinary expeditions this year, from a charcuterie‑and‑cheese‑board endeavour in January to our latest fruit‑based escapade in June. Next time, we may simply avoid the hottest weekend on record to better satiate our sweet tooth.
Thank you for reading.
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