Berkshire

Pick Your Own Farms in North Hampshire and Berkshire

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in Berkshire, Food, Hampshire, Outings, Shopping, Summer 1 Comment
Mr NHM's 2015 Pumpkin!!
Mr NHM’s 2015 Pumpkin!!

Carly sent me a very sweet email, prompting me to get my butt in gear and post up this Pick Your Own Farm post! This was a really hard post to research, so if you know of any other local pick your own farms, please let me know at northhantsmum@gmail.com. Thanks for the reminder Carly and I hope you find it useful!

Hampshire

Bourne Valley Pick Your Own, Near Whitchurch/Andover: strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, black, red and white currants and broad beans

West Green Fruits, Hartley Wintney, Hook: West Green Fruits was established in 1997, and is a family run business of 15 acres set in farmland near Hartley Wintney. We offer an extensive range of fruit including; Strawberries, Raspberries, Rhubarb, Gooseberries, Tayberries, Tummelberries, Black & Redcurrants, Blackberries and Summer vegetables.

Durleighmarsh Farm, nr Petersfield: Set in beautiful countryside on the Hampshire/Sussex border, a stone’s throw from Petersfield, Durleighmarsh Farm with its family-run Farm Shop and Pick-Your-Own offers a huge range of top quality fruit and vegetables throughout the season.

Portland Farm, North Waltham (no website that I could see for this farm)

Berkshire

Grays Farm, Wokingham: The Farm is now closed for the winter. We will open as usual in mid April for Rhubarb & hope to open fully on May 18th 2013 with Strawberries, New Potatoes etc.

Copas Farms, Cookham: Copas Farms is a modern, diverse, family-run business with a landholding of just under 3,000 acres in and around the Chilterns and Thames Valley.  From this approximately 2,400 acres is under arable rotation and 81 acres is allocated to two Pick Your Own Farms providing seasonal fruit and vegetables – one at Cookham in Berkshire and the other at Iver in Buckinghamshire.  The centre of operations is based at Hedsor Park Farm, Hedsor in Buckinghamshire.

I also stumbled across this Local Organic Box Delivery in Basingstoke: Northdown Orchard. I currently use Able and Cole but am considering switching to this local supplier. I will let you know if I do manage to get this sorted!

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Review 2013: The Living Rainforest, nr Newbury, Berkshire

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in Berkshire, Reviews of Days Out 2 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about bringing some new ideas for post themes to NHM and I think I’m going to try to do reviews for the places that we’ve visited as a family, as the information may be useful for other NHM Readers. So, here is the first post for a review of a place that I’ve been to recently with my family.

The Living Rainforest

I saw the details of the Living Rainforest via a post from Fumblina, a long time NHM Reader. We finally got around to going on Friday. We had a really lovely day and we spent a couple of hours wandering around the rainforest. Its quite small but there is lots to see. My little one kept saying “Wow!” every time we saw something new.

There were creepy crawlies, turtles, a big fish tank with catfish and the biggest stingray, and lots of birds flying around in one of the rainforests. We found the Sloth, she was hiding up in a very big tree, but we didn’t manage to spot the crocodile. My little one loved looking at the monkeys and was even more impressed when a teal (which looks like a duck) walked past her! She kept saying “Quack Quack! lol.

A Teal

When you buy your ticket it lasts for the year and gives you unlimited entry to the Rainforest for the following 12 months. There are free Activity packs available for 4 to 7 year olds which include activities to do in the Rainforest.

The Living Rainforest is open daily, with the exception of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. When we went there were several school groups there and it was difficult to get around with the pushchair as we kept bumping into them. However, by about 1.30pm all of the school groups had left and we practically had the place to ourselves. On this basis, I recommend going in the afternoon as I spoke to a member of staff who said they have several groups of school children visiting every day.

The prices are as follows (for a years entry, which is a bargain!):

  • Adult £9.95
  • Child (2- 14) £7.95
  • Under 2 Free
  • OAP/Student/Con. £8.95
  • Family (2A + 2C) £31.75
  • Family (1A + 3C) £30.75
  • Carer Free

My little one is just under two so she had free entry but we plan on going again, probably in October when the weather turns as this was such a great indoor activity.

However, although I remembered my little one’s welly boots, we didn’t have a change of trousers and she kept falling over in puddles, so I recommend taking a change of clothes as well as welly’s for your children. Also, it’s very warm (as rainforests tend to be!) so keep this in mind if you are taking coats without a pushchair as you’ll have to carry them around with you.

The centre is family and baby friendly, with nappy-changing and bottle warming facilities available.

We had a great day out and as a family gave it a 4/5 rating.  We would have given a higher rating if the baby changing facilities had a working lock on the door and the restraining strap wasn’t broken.

Have you been to The Living Rainforest? If so, what did you think?

The best picture of the Sloth that we could get!
The best picture of the Sloth that we could get!

Great Picnic Spots near Basingstoke

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in Berkshire, Hampshire, Picnic's 0 Comment

I LOVE a good picnic. It’s the simple things that count. A good location, yummy food and nice weather and you have a perfect day ahead of you. It helps that the weather for this week is predicted to be sunny…at last!

You don’t even need to spend much, just grab whatever is in the fridge or cupboard that can be used as finger food and stick it in a lunchbox or rucksack.

It’s a known fact that food eaten outside always tastes so much better than when it’s eaten indoors.

Grab a blanket, pack some suncream, make sure you don’t forget hats or drinks for your children and head off somewhere new. Most of the places below are suitable for pushchairs.

Also check out this post about Great picnic spots in Basingstoke HERE.

Let me know if you enjoy these picnic spots too.

Great Picnic Spots near Basingstoke

Frensham Common, Frensham Great Pond Farnham, Surrey (love it here, but you need an offroad pushchair as a lot of the paths are sandy)
Greenham and Crookham Common, Newbury (love it here too. The cows gave my little one something to laugh at!)
Padworth Common, West Berkshire
Wokefield Common,  Wokefield, Berkshire
Yately Common, Yateley
Hartley Wintney Cricket Ground,  Hartley Wintney
Elvetham Heath pond, Elvetham Heath
Hosehill Lake nature, Reading
California Country Park, Wokingham
Horseshoe Lake, Bracknell
King’s Pond, Alton
Bucklebury Common, Berkshire
Thatcham Reedbeds, Thatcham
Forbury Gardens, Reading
Abbey Ruins, Reading
Heathlake, Wokingham
Christchurch Meadows, Reading
Alice Holt Forest, Nr Alton. See a review on NHM about Alice Holt
Lavell’s Lake, Wokingham
Aldermoors Local Nature Reserve, Wokingham

May 2013: I’ve just found a new picnic spot, which is fab! It’s over in Herriard, about 10 minutes drive from Basingstoke to Alton on the A339.

You pass the sign to Herriard and then take a left signed  to Upton Grey/Weston Patrick. The park and meadow are just on the right.

There are three play areas and a huge meadow which my toddler loved running around. It’s great for a picnic as there are a few trees so you can get some shade in the sun.

Are there any other great picnic spots in the area that you would like to share?