Just like clockwork on the first of September the air had the slightest chill in it to welcome the arrival of autumn. It was hard to believe a few days prior England had recorded its warmest bank holiday weekend in decades. A joyful hurrah to summer.
I love autumn. It’s my favourite season and already a few trees around Malvern have started to turn yellow and red, readying themselves for the cooler months ahead. In those last hazy days of warmth though, Adam and I took my family and his sister Alex to a local fruit farm for a spot of picking…
Clive’s Fruit Farm is around a 10 minute drive from our house, on the outskirts of Upton Upon Severn.
Our main goal was to collect raspberries. My mum and brother, like me, had completely fallen in love with the delicious sweet berries that just tasted so much better than the ones we’d eaten in Australia.
We headed to the open-walled greenhouses the raspberries canes were growing in first. It was steamy wandering through the jungle of plants, but we were rewarded with hundreds of ruby red, jewel-like fruit, glistening in the sunlight.
We left with containers full and feasted on the raspberries over the next few days, adding them to granola in the morning, eating them with dark chocolate in the evening or simply snacking on them throughout the day.
A lot of trees were in fruit when we visited, so we also managed to pick up some damsons, plums and pears.
Back at the on-site farm shop, there were huge crates full of apples and pears. Adam gathered some apples and we’re planning on going to find some blackberries over the next few days so we can combine the two into a spectacular crumble.
We decided a reward was needed after a morning of work out in the sun and enjoyed scones and tea under the shade of a big umbrella. Adam and I opted for the savoury ‘farmer’s tea’ which consisted of a scone, a slab of cheese and a little pot of chutney. Delicious!
Have a wonderful first week of September. x
Wattle and Ash 