Kentish cherry season is underway. The general fruit and vegetable stall in the town has been selling cherries for a while now, but it is always more exciting when the Faversham cherry lady arrives with her stall, and there is always a queue of people waiting to buy a pound of cherries from her laden baskets. Even better, is that we are lucky enough to have a Pick Your Own Cherry Farm within walking distance of our house, and this weekend marked the opening of their picking season.

The first cultivated cherries were introduced into Britain by the Romans during the 1st century AD, although (sour) wild cherries were apparently already growing here. Roman soldiers were given an allowance of cherries as part of their rations, and it is said that the stones that they spat out as they marched along, resulted in the proliferation of cherry trees along. the Roman roads. Some cherries were still grown after the Romans left, mostly by monks in monastery gardens, but they were reintroduced in greater numbers during the 15th century, on the orders of Henry VIII who had tasted them in Flanders. These first new orchards were located in Teynham, near Faversham, and by the 17th and 18th century there were so many orchards that the area was known as the Faversham fruit belt.

Sadly, the orchards are once again in decline and so we are particularly lucky to have a PYO option, especially as it is also a particularly lovely walk, mostly following the North Downs Way, to get there. It had rained very heavily first thing this morning, and as we set out along a tarmac lane we suddenly spotted lots of tiny frogs hopping along. It’s been the first rain for ages, and this had maybe prompted the exodus from their pond in search of a new habitat. It was a fascinating sight, and we stopped and watched them for quite a while. When we resumed our walk we had to tread very carefully because we were terrified of squashing any! Luckily the lane is a dead end, leading to just a couple of houses, so most of them should hopefully have continued to make it safely.

At the end of the lane, the North Downs Way slopes down and we passed by apple and pear orchards before reaching Bigbury Camp – site of an Iron Age hill fort and site of a battle between locals and the legions of Julius Caesar) at Howfield Wood. There are wild goats who graze here (courtesy of the Kent Wildlife Trust), but the trees which were coppiced a few years ago are growing rapidly and so they are difficult to spot at the moment as they are often hidden by the thick undergrowth.

We then turned off the North Downs Way to walk through a hop garden before reaching the cherry orchard, so it really was a walk to celebrate all that’s best about the Garden of England.

The trees were absolutely laden with fruit; huge, luscious, juicy cherries. You could have filled a whole punnet just from the cherries on one tree, although we slowly wandered along looking for the ripest and fattest, and obviously had to try a few out as we went!

I don’t know whether it’s down to the unseasonably warm and sunny spring and early summer that we have been enjoying this year, but I’m sure that the cherries are even more delicious than usual this year, and they definitely taste better when you have picked them yourself. The farm is going to be open for the next two weekends, and I’m sure that we will be finding our way back there!