6 Awesome Places To Go Strawberry Picking In Essex UK

If you’re looking for a fun summer activity, how about picking your own strawberries? It’s a good activity to do with children too as it helps to teach them more about where food comes from! Farms tend to operate on a cost per carton. There may be different sizes available and they give a rough guide price as to how much it will cost when full up. (A bit like a healthy pick ‘n mix!). Fruit picking season is usually between June until August. Check out these places to go strawberry picking in Essex!

Strawberry Picking in Essex

McLauchlans of Boxted

🗺53 Straight Rd, Boxted, Boxted Cross, Colchester CO4 5RB

🕖Open daily from 9am

💻McLauchlans of Boxted

McLauchlans of Boxted is a great place to go strawberry picking in Essex! There’s a large car park and toilets onsite. Their website is great as it has a ‘pickometer’ that shows you what/how much fruit is available to be picked.

The strawberries have the ‘longest’ season. However if you’re looking for other fruit picking in Essex, they also have pick your own: broad beans, gooseberries, raspberries, red currents, blackcurrants, dessert gooseberries and sweetcorn. (Sweetcorn has a later season, running from late August until September).

Some of the strawberries are absolutely gigantic! It’s always best to search for the best ones before picking them off the plant. Keep in mind that when it comes to picking your own some may not be the best quality on the plant. Some may be over ripe etc!

Olivers Nurseries

🗺Maldon Rd, Witham CM8 3HY

🕖Open daily from 9am (10am on Sunday)

💻Olivers Nurseries

Olivers Nurseries in Witham have pick your own strawberries and raspberries. Entrance is free and fruit cost is calculated by weight. A kilo of strawberries is £6 and a kilo of raspberries are £6.50. Visitors can bring their own container (get it weighed before filling it up!) or punnets can be purchased within the shop.

Check the website before leaving to see the current fruit picking status. If there have been a lot of visitors, they sometimes have to close the pick your own fruit to give the new fruit time to ripen.

They also have a fun field with a corn maze, climbing wall, peddle go karts, a jumping pillow, an inflatable ‘water wars’ and more. The Strawberry Tea Room is open for breakfast and lunches.

Cammas Hall Farm

🗺Cammas Hall Farm Needham Green, Hatfield Broad Oak CM22 7JT

🕖Open Tuesday – Sunday from 9am

💻Cammas Hall Farm

Cammas Hall Farm is located around 5 miles Stansted Airport. Like McLauchlans of Boxted they display on their website what the fruit levels are currently like. Time slots have to be pre-booked in advance and there is a PYO voucher of £3 per person (including children) plus a 25p booking fee. The voucher total is then deducted from the total cost of the strawberries, providing the total is greater.

1kg of strawberries is £6.45. There are approximately 50 strawberries per kilo. If the voucher total is higher, then it’s not refunded. So, for example, if you have 2 PYO vouchers for £6, then 1kg of strawberries would be ‘free’. But if you had a voucher for a third person and only picked 1kg, then that would essentially make the total £9 for the 1kg. The third £3 would not be refunded. The ‘total’ would then be 1kg of strawberries (worth £5.95), plus £3.

As well as strawberries they also have: gooseberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, onions, sweetcorn and pumpkins. (The vegetable season starts in August, with pumpkins being available in October.)

Spencer’s Farm Shop

🗺Park Road, Halstead CO9 2PX

🕖Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am (9.30am on Sundays)

💻Spencer’s Farm Shop

Between June to August visitors are able to pick your strawberries at Spencer’s Farm Shop near Halstead. There’s a small play area for children as well as a mini golf course (£2 per ball). They also have goats!

Other fruit available to pick include: raspberries, blueberries, cherries, loganberries, red currants and black currants. The farm shop stocks fruit and vegetables to purchase, along with other products from local businesses, such as meat and bread. Varieties of pies and cake are made onsite too.

Lathcoats Farm

🗺Beehive Ln, Great Baddow, Chelmsford CM2 8LX

🕖Open Monday to Saturday from 9am

💻Lathcoats Farm

Lathcoats Farm operate a similar system to Cammas Hall Farm. Fruit picking vouchers need to be purchased for each person entering the fields. Vouchers are £3.10 per person (including a 10p booking fee) and £2 is deducted from the total cost of the fruit purchase. The vouchers are released every night at 7pm for the following day’s availability.

There is also a charge for containers, however you are welcome to bring your own. If using your own container, make sure to get it weighed before filling it, as this is deducted from the total weight at check out.

Lathcoats Farm also have a petting zoo, a farm shop with local products and a coffee shop.

Little Mountains Farm

🗺Little Mountains Farm, Little Mountains Farm/Mountains Rd, Maldon CM9 8BY

🕖Contact for opening times

💻Little Mountains Farm

Little Mountains Farm near Maldon has PYO strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. You pay a ‘flat rate’ for a basket that holds approximately 1.2kg of fruit. Visitors are then free to fill the basket with whatever fruit they want that is available. This could be just strawberries or you can mix the different fruits together.

Tiptree Jam Factory (no PYO)

I can’t talk about strawberry picking in Essex without mentioning Tiptree Jam Factory! Unfortunately they don’t offer pick your own strawberry picking though. They do however have a free museum that shows the history of the fruit picking and jam producing process dating back to 1885. Tiptree is particularly famous for the ‘Little Scarlet’ strawberries which are featured in their signature jam flavour. They are processed within hours of picking to preserve their flavour.

If you’re looking for afternoon tea in Essex, they will almost always be served with Tiptree strawberry jam! Many tearooms across Essex have cream teas but Tiptree also have their own Tiptree Tearooms across the county.

Cream Tea scones with jam and cream at Tiptree Bond St Chelmsford Essex

Ideas For Things To Do With Strawberries Picked in Essex

Eat them raw as a healthy treat.
Have strawberries with cream, similar to the popular Wimbledon snack!
Slice them and put them on top of cream and scones for your own homemade cream tea.
Blend them with milk and vanilla ice cream to make a homemade strawberry milkshake!

For an at home project (if you have a garden or a conservatory) you could always plant your own strawberries. Obviously this does require a lot of patience and a little more effort. Harvesting them is also a little slower. You can buy young strawberry plants online, so it’s just a case of waiting from them to then produce fruit.