14/07/2026
Update
We have news - you will no longer need to book a PYO ticket at any time over the summer, even at weekends.
Anyone that has already booked a ticket will be issued a refund, including the booking fee.
The reason we are stopping the ticketing is that we may have fewer strawberries this weekend, and across the summer than we had hoped for, essentially due to the very prolonged heatwave we have been having. It's hard to predict with certainty, but we feel the very fairest thing to do is allow you to come without tickets, and keep you as updated as possible on strawberry status via our social media and newsletters.
Our strawberries are planted on a schedule that normally means we can open a fresh field for picking around every three weeks. But just like people, when it gets over 30 degrees, strawberries slow down, and growing stops. The recent heatwaves have caused several pauses in growth across our fields, meaning the fruit simply isn't ready when we expected. It has also sped up some of the ripening of others, so a bit of a double-edged sword!
It's one of those challenges of farming – we're always at the mercy of the great British weather, and while we can plan for many things, we can't plan for every heatwave!
Pick Your Own WILL be open as usual and you will find strawberries until September 🙌 but we wanted to manage expectations, and let you know they will come and go in volume! Keep an eye on here, if you're coming, for the latest info, we'll let you know if strawberries need to close for a few days to catch up and ripen.
Don't forget we are open seven days a week from 9am, and the café opens at 8am, and have plenty of raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and flowers to pick.
We're so grateful for your ongoing support and we hope to see you at the farm very soon.
The Rectory Farm Team x
