We are thrilled to have the first local strawberries arrive in the shop this week, directly from Westlands Farm near Wickham. They are juicy, heavily scented and taste delicious, and are perfect with the Easter sunshine.
Westlands is a long-season producer of strawberries and raspberries, who aim to extend the UK growing season as much as possible and to supply locally grown produce at times of year when others are importing. Every punnet that they produce, displaces an imported one and that is a win for all of us, for UK producers and the environment.
They begin picking strawberries in April in glasshouses with a variety called Malling Centenary. This highly popular June bearing strawberry has world-beating flavour and fruit appearance but it will harvest across a relatively short period and will finish by mid-June. This is followed by Favori, a long-season Ever-Bearing variety with great taste that will keep going throughout the year and will pick from their polytunnels until early November.
They are £2.75 / punnet and go extremely well with local meringues from Bosham based Farmhouse Cookery and some Goodwood double cream.
