We have a lovely little ‘pick your own’ farm a really short distance from where we live. I vaguely remember going as a child to pick strawberries and had planned on taking Monkey to pick strawberries, but alas we missed the season this year. My neighbour went though and also went recently and said they had the most delicious plums! Plums aren’t a fruit regularly eaten in our house but my neighbour really wanted Monkey and I to join her and her kiddies on a pick your own expedition, and I thought Monkey would enjoy it so off we went.
Monkey absolutely loved it at the farm, so many open spaces to run about bless him and he just kept running around shouting “Berry, berry, berry!” lol. He was quite helpful with picking the plums, although he also tried picking some very underripe ones, and some less than lovely looking ones off the floor! He did try though!
I didn’t realise they also had blackberry bushes and we love a blackberry crumble in our house so we picked some of those too. I was worried he would hurt himself on the thorns but he managed really well and actually tried to eat some of the blackberries and plums, though he isn’t very good with fresh fruit and pretty much spat it all out.
We then had a play on their fabulous play park before we headed home. It was a lovely place and we will definitely go fruit picking there again!
I wasn’t sure what to do with the fruit to start with as neither hubby or Monkey are big fans of fresh fruit, and I don’t really have the energy to make anything complicated. So it didn’t take long for me to decide to make a Plum & Blackberry crumble. I love making crumbles mainly because they are so easy to make, are absolutely yummy and get some fruit inside us (albeit with a lot of sugar involved!)
Here is our recipe for a lovely crumble. My fruit measurements are very vague and can be interchangeable with a lot of fruits. I originally used this recipe to make a rhubarb crumble, though with rhubarb you also need 50ml of water, which I left out in this case as the plums were so juicy in themselves!
Plum & Blackberry Crumble Ingredients
500g Fruit – in this case Plums & Blackberries – chopped/sliced thinly
100g Caster Sugar
100g Wholemeal Flour (can use plain)
100g Rolled Oats (Porridge oats)
100g Butter (we use unsalted)
125g Demerara Sugar
Plum & Blackberry Crumble Method
Preheat the oven to 180°
Place the chopped into fruit in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with the Caster Sugar (and water if necessary i.e with rhubarb)
Put the Flour, Oats and Demerara Sugar in a separate bowl. Add the butter and mix in with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. It is ok if there are a few lumpy bits.
Sprinkle crumble mixture over the fruit as evenly as possible, and don’t pat down too much.
Bake for 35- 40 mins or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling around the edges.
Serve with custard, or a good dollop of ice cream!
Looks like a great place to visit – my two would love it! They do do fruit-picking, but whilst Boo’s good at it, Little Man is not so adept! x
aww I am sure he’ll get better as he gets bigger! 🙂 xx
The crumble looked delicious – how could they resist!? PYO is one of our families favourite activities and it’s great that Monkey tried the fresh fruit too. What a great idea to have the play area there too – it makes the visit longer and more fun for the children too. Thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.
Yeah the play area was fab actually and Monkey just loved it. Plus we got some yummy crumble to boot! xx
I keep meaning to take my lot strawberry picking, and miss it every year! I’m not a fruit fan, but that crumble looks good. Thanks for linking up. #FamilyFriday
thanks Danny, crumble is definitely a good way to get eating fruit, especially with lots of custard! 🙂 xx
I love crumbles, apple and blackberry is my favourite. The fruit picking looks like great fun. I keep meaning to go myself but time always seems to run out. #familyfriday
ooh yummy, sadly my hubby doesn’t like cooked apples though we love a bit of rhubarb in our house too! xx
Our blackberries are taking an aaagggee to ripen. We have managed to find a couple that have turned black but they are super sour and so we have some more waiting to do 🙁
aww I am sure they will ripen and be tasty before you know it! These were a little sour but they were fine in the crumble 🙂 xx
Looks like a fab activity and you can’t beat a good old fashioned crumble 🙂 i love the idea of PYO farms, but sadly you always need to drive xx recipeoftheweek
ah of course, must make it a lot harder to get to them! Shame though as they can be so much fun! Love a good crumble too 🙂 xx
love love love this .. how fab to pick your own and then to make the crumble .. its great to teach children where food comes from xx
thanks for linking up with #MagicMoments
thanks Jaime, it was fab and a good experience for him , hopefully we will do it a bit earlier next year with some other fruits! xx
That looks an amazing pick your own place – we have done the usual strawberries and raspberries but never plums. I love the park there too, what a great idea. #MagicMoments
It is great and I can’t believe I’ve not been before tbh! xx
Really love him with those sunglasses! Looks like a fun day outdoors and indoors =) #countrykids
Ooooh that looks yummy! Lovely photos x #magicmoments
thank you 🙂 xx
So many fond memories of fruit picking as a child and keep meaning to go with mine children this year. I hate plums with a passion but my son loves them as does my husband. We used to have our own orchard and that was lovely. Different times now. Lovely post and who doesn’t like a good crumble.
Wow that must have been lovely and very handy! Fruit picking is great fun! xx
This is just what I needed as we’re literally about to walk out of the door and go blackberry picking now. I’ve never mixed them with plums before but this sounds just fab, I may well have to try it out….
#Recipeoftheweek
Ooh yes you should, it is a lovely combination!! xx
Mmm, how good does that look?! Especially with the flapjack-y topping. Gorgeous. Thanks so much for linking up with #recipeoftheweek. I’ve pinned this post to my food board and a tweet will go out later 🙂
Thank you, i do love it with the added oats on top! xx
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What a great day out, your crumble looks so yummy 🙂
Thanks for linking up to Creative Mondays last week..Pinned and featuring this week at the blog hop…
Thanks lovely and thanks for featuring! xx
You can’t beat a blackberry crumble – we went blackberry-picking this weekend at our local park and made ours into an apple and blackberry crumble, I love the sound of the plums in this though – yum!
#TastyTuesdays
Oh wow this looks gorgeous, love, love, love a crumble. I always like to add a touch of cinnamon to mine although did read cinnamon is apparently not safe for pregnant women according to a German reference online I think ( I was researching it for an article). Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Thanks lovely, ooh the cinnamon sounds tasty…. though I had no idea it wasn’t safe for pregnant women! Interesting! xx
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