Priory Farm - Pick your own in Surrey

It’s a rather special time at Priory Farm in Nutfield; not only are they celebrating their golden jubilee this year, but they have also just brought back ‘pick-your-own’ after an absence of six years.

Beginning in 1969 near Redhill with just one acre of strawberries, they were one of the first PYO farms in the UK. The 70s and 80s were boom times, with visitors flocking from all over the area, but gradually numbers dwindled and they decided to call it a day.

Many people were deeply saddened when it all came to an end, as for numerous families, their summer strawberry picking expedition had become an annual tradition. Happily, though, with the huge interest of late in sourcing local produce and reducing food miles, the farm has decided to let the public back in among the strawberries and raspberries.

“When we stopped the PYO, we upset a lot of people who were real enthusiasts for it,” says he owner of the farm, John Shinner. “It’s great to see the fruit being picked again, and we’ve had such a fantastic response from visitors. People seem to really appreciate being able to source their fruit locally and actually pick it themselves.”

Over the last half a century, the farm business has diversified into a wide spread of activities. John and his wife Wendy began with cereals, sheep, pigs and poultry, but farming was under pressure and the success of pick your own in America prompted them to start their own.

Then when PYO declined in the 1990s, John opened a plant centre and then a farm shop.

“These are quite substantial businesses now and they support my two sons who run the farm now,” says John. “They have also expanded into corporate entertainment and we have three fishing lakes and mountain boarding. Like any business, it needs to change and we have managed to do so.”

Attached to the Farm Shop is one of the busiest hubs on the farm - the kitchen, where creative food development manager Gill Potterton dreams up, experiments, tests, tastes and produces 150 different food lines. These are then sold in the Farm Shop and the Coffee Shop at the Plant Centre.

“Our fresh cakes are best sellers and we make a range of frozen ready meals from one portion to family size, party desserts, quiches and pies,” she says. “We have four people working in the kitchen all the time, cooking six days a week, and we can’t make things fast enough. I do a lot of product development, working out new dishes and I put them to a tasting panel.

“I use our own fruit crops so it’s a wonderful opportunity to use locally produced fruit.”

A visit to Priory Farm

Priory Farm Is located in Sandy Lane, Nutfield, near Redhill. The pick-your-own fields are open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and Sundays 10am to 4pm. Traditionally at this time of year, you should be able to catch the end of the raspberries and then for the rest of August both plums and runner beans. However, crops do vary, depending on weather, ripening times and level of demand, so it’s always best to check first by calling the Crop Hotline on 07754 188824 or by visiting the website at www.prioryfarm.co.uk

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