Britain’s best PYOs vie for national title

Some of Britain’s best Pick Your Own (PYO) farms have been shortlisted for the national Farm Retail Awards.

Two of the finalists hail from Yorkshire and one is from Worcestershire. They hope to follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner, Cammas Hall from Bishop’s Stortford in Essex.

The category has been judged earlier than others in the awards in order for the judging to take place at the height of the PYO season, allowing the visits to take place at the peak time of year for the businesses.

Those shortlisted for the PYO category will now go through to the awards in March 2024. They include:

Bells Farm Shop, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire. Bells Farm is a third-generation family run PYO farm shop, butchery and cafe with 40 acres of fruit and vegetables in Worcestershire. Combining traditional growing with new ideas, they aim to bring new customers to enjoy the taste and fun of PYO, and feature over 200 varieties of fruit and vegetables.

Farmer Copleys, Pontefract, West Yorkshire. Farmer Copleys has a family-run farm shop, Moo Café, function space and events centre. The Copley family has been farming for over 140 years with the aim to showcase British agriculture to the community while also getting people engaged with the countryside and helping people learn where their food comes from and how it is produced. Visitors are encouraged to get involved in learning about food by educating through fun and offering a unique experience of interacting with homegrown local produce.

Horsforth Pick Your Own, Leeds, West Yorkshire. Rory Kemp established Horsforth Pick Your Own almost 40 years ago in traditional small oak tree-lined pasture fields, overlooking Leeds and Bradford. Now joined by his son Joe, the PYO has evolved and they now grow both table top (7.75km) and in-the-ground strawberries (three acres) along with raspberries (2.5 acres). For Halloween pumpkins were added in 2018 with pumpkin numbers increasing year on year to currently 70,000. For the festive season, Yorkshire grown Christmas trees are sold along with free-range bronze turkeys reared on the farm from poults, and then hand plucked, hung and dressed.

Chairman of the Farm Retail Association, Emma Mosey, said: “The standard of entries has been incredible. We look forward to seeing entrants from all remaining categories now, and celebrating the very best in the business at our awards ceremony next March. Good luck to all of our finalists!”