New ways for fresh fruit lovers to get their fix

WHAT tops a sponge cake perfectly? What makes a fruit salad delicious? And what goes perfectly with yoghurt or whipped cream?

Fresh berries are the passion of a new borough business.

Launched in May, Berrymakers offers a direct to consumer online service, delivering fresh punnets of blackberries, blueberries and strawberries to people’s doors.

General manager of Berrymakers, Lucy Neal-Hooke is excited about the company’s first visit to Wokingham Festival, which will take place in a few days.

She said: “No-one is doing quite what we are – we want to be pioneers in the market.

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All our berries are grown in Berkshire and Surrey, with only our premium fruit being selected for consumers.

“Our fruit is available from farmers’ markets, mainly in London; farm shops, including Wokingham Squire’s Garden Centre; high end hotels; and at events like Wokingham Festival.

Berries can also be found at the company’s new vending machines (one of which is next to Squire’s Wokingham), and at Berrymakers’ Sheeplands Farm.

“We’ll be in Wokingham on all three festival dates, providing people with fresh fruit and explaining our new online delivery service.

“We’re excited to share with people what we’re doing that’s different.”

At Berrymakers’ farms, the nearest of which is Heathlands Farm in Wokingham, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries are all grown under polytunnels.

“We’re able to deliver strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, but raspberries don’t travel well,” explained Lucy.

“Our fruit is grown as sustainably as possible.”

At Heathlands Farm, and Sheeplands Farm, both in Berkshire, and at Tuesley Farm in Surrey, around 65% of the energy used to grow the berries comes from renewable sources.

Roof and ground-mounted solar panels, heat pumps and a biomass boiler provide the required temperatures.

And because water-source heat pumps create four times as much energy as electric pumps, Berrymakers can extend their growing season by up to three weeks earlier and up to five weeks later in the year.

Committed to biodiversity, the company has planted more than 3,300 trees, established a kilometre of hedgerows, and set aside 11,000 square metres of meadows.

Within its polytunnels hundreds of bee hives ensure natural pollination.

Lucy says that Berrymakers is kind to its pickers too.

“Our fruit is grown at table top height to make it easier for our staff to pick the berries comfortably,” she said.

“Our packaging is sustainable, too.

“We use recycled packaging, with one being fully made from cardboard.

“Nobody else is doing what we are.

“We’re a British company, we’re local to Wokingham, and all our packaging is recycled.

“Come and visit us at the festival.”