Meet This Year’s Fruit Varieties
Everything you need to know before you head out with your basket — from the stories behind each variety to tips for picking at its very best.
Every year we carefully choose the varieties we grow, and this season we think we’ve put together a particularly special line-up. From a celebrated British strawberry champion to one of the world’s rarest blackberries, there’s something extraordinary waiting for you in every row. Pull on your boots, grab a punnet, and let us introduce you to this year’s harvest.
◆ The Varieties ◆
Strawberries
Sonata
If you’ve ever tasted a strawberry so sweet it stopped you in your tracks, there’s a good chance it was a Sonata. Bred in the Netherlands and quickly adopted by British growers as the premium outdoor variety, the Sonata is a mid-season berry renowned for producing large, conical, deeply-glossy fruits with an intense, old-fashioned sweetness that modern supermarket varieties simply can’t replicate.
Did you know?
The Sonata was developed specifically to revive the rich, fragrant flavour of heirloom strawberries while being robust enough for the British climate. It consistently tops blind taste tests among professional growers and chefs.
Sonata berries are at their absolute peak when they are deep red all the way to the calyx — don’t be tempted to pick them before they’ve fully coloured. They are perfect eaten straight from the plant, still warm from the sun, and sublime with clotted cream. Their high sugar content also makes them the gold standard for homemade jam.
Raspberries
Glen Mor
Cascade Gem
We grow two outstanding raspberry varieties this year, giving you a beautiful contrast in character — one a beloved Scottish thoroughbred, the other a transatlantic gem with extraordinary depth of flavour.
Glen Mor
Bred by the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, Glen Mor produces large, firm berries with a well-balanced sweet-sharp flavour. It’s one of the most highly regarded British summer raspberries, bred to thrive in our climate and prized for its reliability. The long, productive canes mean there are always plenty to pick, and the berries hold their shape beautifully — perfect if you’re planning to bake.
Cascade Gem
Originally developed in the Pacific Northwest of America, the Cascade Gem is a late-season variety that extends the raspberry season delightfully into late summer. It produces medium-to-large, slightly elongated berries with a notably complex, intensely aromatic flavour — deeper and more wine-like than most. If you want raspberries for coulis, cordials, or eating fresh with a glass of something chilled, this is your pick.
Did you know?
Raspberries are not actually berries in the botanical sense — they are “aggregate drupes,” a cluster of tiny individual fruits (drupelets), each containing its own seed. A single raspberry can contain up to 100 of them.
Green Gooseberries
Invicta
Britain has a long and passionate relationship with the gooseberry, and Invicta is perhaps the nation’s most widely grown variety for excellent reason. Developed at East Malling Research Station in Kent — whose name literally means “unconquered” — Invicta produces large, pale green, oval berries with a juicy, sharp-sweet flavour and thin, almost translucent skin. The yields are extraordinary.
Did you know?
Gooseberry shows were a fiercely competitive Victorian tradition, particularly in the north of England. Enthusiasts called “gooseberry growers’ societies” would compete to grow the heaviest single berry. The tradition still survives in Cheshire today, where the world record stands at an astonishing 64.49 grams for a single berry.
Pick Invicta slightly underripe (when still firm and a little tart) for jams, crumbles and the classic gooseberry fool — the sharp acidity is perfect with cream and sugar. Left a little longer on the bush, they sweeten beautifully and are wonderful eaten fresh. They are also one of the very finest partners for oily fish, particularly mackerel.
Red Gooseberries
Hinnonmäki Red
This Finnish variety is something of a revelation for anyone who has only ever tried green gooseberries. Hinnonmäki Red (named after a village in Finland) ripens to a deep, beautiful wine-red with a flavour that is markedly sweeter and more dessert-like than its green counterpart — some compare it to a sweet cherry crossed with a gooseberry. The skins are smooth and the fruits are medium-sized but packed with juice.
Did you know?
Finland is one of the world’s great gooseberry-growing nations. The Hinnonmäki breeding programme produced several varieties in the 1970s and 80s, of which the red is considered the finest for flavour. It has outstanding mildew resistance, making it particularly well-suited to the damp British summer.
Unlike green gooseberries, Hinnonmäki Red is genuinely good eaten straight from the bush when fully ripe — no sugar required. It makes superb pink-hued jams and jellies with a gorgeous colour, and is wonderful in tarts or pavlovas where you want fruit that looks as spectacular as it tastes.
Blackberries
Loch Ness
Karaka Black
Silva
Black Beauté
Our blackberry collection this year is genuinely exceptional — four very different varieties, each with its own character and story. Blackberries are one of the most ancient cultivated fruits in Britain, and these modern selections show just how far breeding has taken them from the hedgerow bramble.
Loch Ness
Scotland’s most famous blackberry, bred by the Scottish Crop Research Institute in the 1980s. Loch Ness produces large, firm, well-flavoured berries on thornless canes — making picking a pure pleasure. The flavour is rich and classic; sweet with that characteristic bramble depth. Its reliability and consistent cropping make it the gold standard for pick-your-own.
Karaka Black
Originally developed in New Zealand, Karaka Black causes something of a sensation when people encounter it for the first time. The berries are enormous — often three to four times the size of a wild blackberry — with an elongated shape and a rich, complex, almost winey flavour. One of the most impressive-looking fruits you will ever pick, and a firm favourite with bakers and chefs.
Silva
A newer thornless variety that combines exceptional flavour with remarkable size. Silva berries are plump, glossy, and sweet-forward with just enough sharpness to keep things interesting. They have a slightly softer texture that makes them ideal for eating fresh, topping desserts, or folding into yoghurt. They also freeze extraordinarily well, preserving both colour and flavour for months.
Black Beauté
Arguably the most visually striking blackberry you will ever see. Black Beauté produces long, almost cylindrical berries with an intensely deep, lacquered appearance — they look almost too beautiful to eat. The flavour lives up to the looks: very sweet, aromatic, and with a floral note that sets it apart from any other blackberry. An extraordinary variety that remains relatively rare outside specialist growers.
Did you know?
Blackberries are rich in anthocyanins — the pigments responsible for their deep colour — which are among the most potent antioxidants found in any fruit. Weight for weight, fresh blackberries contain more antioxidants than blueberries, pomegranates, or red wine.
Blackcurrants
Ben Connan
Ebony
Few fruits are as quintessentially British as the blackcurrant. With their intense, almost electric burst of sharp sweetness and their extraordinary vitamin C content, they are one of the great joys of the summer harvest. This year we offer two very different expressions of this remarkable fruit.
Ben Connan
A Scottish superstar from the James Hutton Institute — the same breeding programme that gave us Glen Mor raspberries — Ben Connan is one of the most celebrated blackcurrant varieties in Britain. It produces exceptionally large berries, often among the biggest of any blackcurrant variety, with a rich, full flavour that balances sweetness with the classic sharp, aromatic depth you expect. The clusters ripen evenly and pick cleanly, making it a pleasure to harvest. Outstanding for cordials, jams, and summer puddings.
Ebony
A newer variety that has quickly earned a devoted following among growers and food lovers alike. Ebony produces medium-sized, jet-black berries with an unusually sweet flavour profile for a blackcurrant — less sharp than traditional varieties, with a smooth, almost jammy quality that makes it genuinely enjoyable eaten straight from the bush. The fruit hangs in long, generous strings and has a slightly later ripening window, extending the picking season. If you’ve ever found blackcurrants a touch too tart, Ebony may well convert you.
Did you know?
Blackcurrants contain four times more vitamin C than oranges by weight. During the Second World War, when citrus imports were severely restricted, the British government encouraged widespread blackcurrant growing and distributed the juice free to children — a legacy that lives on in the nation’s enduring love of blackcurrant cordial.
Redcurrants
Junifer
Redcurrants are one of the most visually beautiful fruits you’ll find on the farm — the translucent, jewel-bright berries hanging in long, glistening strings look like something from a Dutch still-life painting. This year we grow Junifer, an early-season variety from Germany that is widely regarded as producing some of the finest redcurrants available.
Did you know?
Redcurrants are one of the few fruits where the entire string (or “strig”) is harvested in one go rather than picking individual berries. The classic technique is to hold the strig over a bowl and run a fork along its length — the berries come away cleanly in seconds. It’s enormously satisfying.
Junifer ripens earlier than most redcurrant varieties, bringing a welcome burst of colour to the farm in early summer. The berries are bright scarlet, medium to large, with a bright, clean sharpness balanced by a pleasant underlying sweetness. The strigs are long and heavily laden, making picking both easy and deeply rewarding.
Redcurrants are the essential ingredient in a proper Cumberland sauce and the classic French groseilles jelly served with game. They are also magnificent pressed into a summer fruit jelly, scattered over a white chocolate tart, or simply tumbled over vanilla ice cream — where their vivid colour and sharp flavour cut through the richness perfectly.
Come & Pick Your Own
Our fields are open six days a week throughout the season. All you need to bring is a sunny disposition and we’ll provide the punnets.