Pick Your Own at Mitchell Fruit Garden

It’s that time of year again when summer fruits and veg are ripe and ready for the picking.

A red strawberry and a green strawberry hanging off the end of a trellis table

After toying with where to go as a family for a few hours one day in the summer holidays, my mum suggested Mitchell Fruit Garden for a bit of pick your own. And what a good idea it turned out to be.

Despite it being mid-August, the weather wasn’t fantastic. We originally planned to spend the day doing something else, but in the end decided not to venture too far from home, on The Roseland Peninsula. The holiday traffic, and the volume of people in Cornwall this summer, has been insane. It’s meant many locals, like us, haven’t ventured far, choosing to appreciate what’s on our doorstep.

A polytunnel with rows of strawberry plants on tables
Two red strawberries on a plant with green leaves

About Mitchell Fruit Garden

Mitchell Fruit Garden, or Farm, is just off the A30. If you’re heading west, it’s not far after the Fraddon services at Hamburger Hill. Being the first turning after coming off the A30, it’s easy to find and well signposted.

The fruit farm has a good website, giving some idea of what’s in season each month. Even though it’s not far off the main road, it’s a pretty peaceful place to visit.

Parking’s fine at Mitchell Fruit Garden too. The website explains that it can be tight, but there was plenty of room when we arrived near midday.

What’s Good About Pick Your Own?

Aside from coming home with some delicious fruit and veg, pick your own is just one way of supporting local businesses and farmers. The food travels less miles from plant to plate, and ultimately, it saves money. By visiting local pick your own farms, we’re stocking up on seasonal produce too.

A price guide on a blackboard for pick your own at Mitchell Fruit Farm
A sign for Strawberry picking at Mitchell Fruit Farm

Pick Your Own at Mitchell Fruit Garden

Arriving at Mitchell Fruit Garden, we could see a list of available fruit and veg. Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, all ready to for harvest. We eagerly picked up a few punnets each, ready to go.

We headed to the strawberry polytunnels first. Rows and rows of carefully tended strawberry plants lay ahead of us, there was no shortage of strawberries to pick. We found plenty of ripe, plump strawberries to choose from, but found some proper big ones when we hunted a bit, and looked amongst the leaves.

A white flower with yellow centre from a strawberry plant at Mitchell Fruit Farm
A polytunnel full of strawberry plants and 2 people PYO
A women with white hair picking strawberries at Mitchell Fruit Farm
A child's hand dangling a strawberry with strawberry plant in the background

We easily filled up 4 punnets between us, and could’ve picked more. After a successful strawberry haul, we decided to head to the raspberry tunnels. On our way we could see gooseberry bushes and rhubarb, sadly not quite ready for picking. I love rhubarb and custard and if it was ready, I’d definitely had some.

ripe and green raspberries hanging off a branch in a polytunnel
Penny Sherwood picking raspberries in a polytunnel

There were fewer raspberry tunnels compared to strawberry at Mitchell, and even though we had to initially look for ripe raspberries, we filled up a punnet. That’s a fair amount of raspberries! We found the further up the tunnel we went, the more raspberries there were available.

We actually managed to come away from Mitchell Fruit Garden with a decent amount of berries. One of the benefits of pick your own is it’s cheaper than buying from a shop. I couldn’t believe how much we garnered for our money.

a hand holding a punnet of strawberries

Recipe

Once home, I realised I forgot to pick up some Roddas clotted cream to go with my strawberries and raspberries. I put that right the next day and also decided to make a wheat/grain free strawberry flan with an almond and lemon base.

a bowl of strawberries, 2 lemons and a flan base in a dish

Credit where credit’s due, it was delicious. I hasten to add it didn’t last long either!

If you like cooking and baking, why not try making a traditional Cornish pasty?

a boy smiling with a punnet of fruit at a farm
A woman with white hair, wearing a breton holding a punnet of raspberries and a punnet of strawberries
Penny from The Great Cornish Outdoors smiling, holding a punnet of berries at Mitchell Fruit Farm

Henry enjoyed picking fruit too. For someone who’s previously claimed he doesn’t like strawberries or raspberries, he tested a few just to make sure!

As a morning out for 3 generations, visiting Mitchell Fruit Garden for pick your own, was a great idea. One I’d certainly recommend.

Author: plbedford

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