Where to Pick Your Own Strawberries near Derby. A Time-Lapse drive to Scaddows Farm, Ticknall.

One of the best things about Briitish summers is being able to pick your own Strawberries. Here in Derby you don't have to drive too far out of the city to get to a farm where you can pick your own fruit.
Just in case you did not know about this farm I have created a time-lapse driving video below of a drive from Osmaston Road in Derby to the PYO farm.

Do you like the taste of freshly picked English Strawberries with cream?
There is nothing quite like the taste and its cheaper than buying them from the supermarket.

Here in my video I have recorded a time-lapse car journey from Derby to Scaddows Farm near Ticknall in Derbyshire.
As you will see its not too far from Derby City to this "pick your own" fruit farm and well worth the drive.
As well as Strawberries they also have blackcurrents, Raspberries, Redcurrents and Gooseberries, also locally produced fruit and veg etc available in their farm shop.

The PYO Season is June to late July and its open 7 days a week from 9.30am to 7.30pm. Because you can collect so much fruit its great for those people wanting to make Jams or cakes but I just like to eat them with cream.



Driving Details:
The car journey starts on Osmaston Road (A514) in Derby and ends at Scaddows Farm, Ticknall, Derbyshire.
The ENTIRE journey from start to end is on the A514 road so very easy to drive.
It starts in The Osmaston area of Derby then through Allenton, Shelton Lock, Chellaston, Swarkestone, Stanton by Bridge and Ticknall.
This trip is 9.3 Miles and takes about 17 minutes if there is no traffic.

When you arrive at the farm entrance you need to turn left and follow the track along and down to the parking area.
Here you can get your plastic punnet or basket with a handle (you pay for the basket when you weigh in your Strawberries). Speaking personally from experience I find that the best quality Strawberries are found furthest away from the entrance to the field as  most people are lazy and just walk to the nearest plants but of course those plants tend to have been picked the most of all.
Also you can find some good crops of berries near weeds and Thistles as people don't like picking near them.
Because you are picking the fruit yourself it means you can select the best of the crop, no point in picking fruit thats not quite ripe or fruit that has started to go mushy. Remove as much of the stalk as possible and don't leave discarded fruit in the walking areas as it ends up all over your shoes!

If you don't want to pick your own Strawberries then you can also buy punnets of Strawberries in the farm shop but seems a bit silly going all that way only to get some picked by someone else.

Costs:
As of July 3rd 2011
We picked 7lb 15oz of fruit and it cost £7.10 (including price for two baskets).

Here is my video:


Music :
Mighty by Olaf used under creative commons license
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
This Track
Olafs music channel.


Driving Route Map
Detailed map of Scaddows Farm

Time-Lapse details :
The driving video is made from 1115 photographs (at 2272x1704 pixels) taken using a modified Canon Ixus 430 camera. Sequenced using Sony Vegas 10 Pro. Video rendered in 1080p (519Mb uploaded video file).

Hope you found my video of use.
Rate and comment if you enjoyed it.

Thanks
Andy

Pick Your Own Strawberries now at Scaddows Farm, Ticknall.

Update ! July 2011
Click me ----> Driving time-lapse video to PYO Farm.

Its that time of year again when you can go and pick your own fruit at several places around Derbyshire.
Because of the great weather over the last few weeks this has to be the best crop of Strawberries.
British Strawberries are the best by miles.

Here is a photograph of the fruit we picked in about 20 mins, over 3.5Kg of large sweet Strawberries. These cost £5.75 which includes 27p per cardboard basket.

This particular P.Y.O. farm is Scaddows Farm at Ticknall, have been there before and its not far to drive to from Derby, just head out of Derby via Chellaston on the A514 then over Swarkestone Bridge and right just after going through Stanton by bridge and follow that road until you see the Pick Your Own Strawberries signs on the left. (See my map below).
Its just an 8 minute drive from Chellaston (following the A514 all the way to the farm)




If you are using a SATNAV to get there then use the Postcode DE73 7JP and as you get near Scaddows farm you will see the PYO signs so you can't miss it.

Google Streetview of Scaddows Farm Entrance.

Once you drive through the gate you turn left and follow the path down to the car park. Park up and get a cardboard basket or plastic punnet from the owners and then walk through the gap to start picking the Strawberries. Once you have picked enough you just walk back to the people with the scales and they will weigh the baskets and tell you how much to pay.
They will also ask you to get on the scales so they can see if you have eaten any and not paid for them ! (Only joking).
My tip for getting the best Strawberries is to walk right down to the bottom corner as most people are lazy and just stay near the entrance.

The Pick Your Own fruit area is open 9.30am-7.30pm and has lots of FREE parking.
As well as Strawberries they also have Raspberries, Gooseberries and Blackcurrents that you can pick for yourself. Fruiting Season is June to late July, depending on the British weather.


View Scaddows Farm, Pick Your Own Strawberries. in a larger map


As well as the Pick Your Own area there is a Farm Shop which offers fruit and veg from South Derbyshire Growers, meat from an award winning butcher, Cheese from Leicestershire and locally made jams, chutneys, cakes and other goodies.

Farm Shop Opening times
Monday - Friday 8.30am-5.30pm (café closes 4.30pm)

Saturday 8.30am - 4.30pm (café closes 4pm)
Sunday 10am - 4pm (café closes 3.30pm)


Scaddows Farm website.

Hope you found this post of use. Go out there and get some real fresh fruit for yourself !
Andy.