Pick your own: berries, flowers or apples

Picking your own means a morning on a farm or in a forest filling a basket with strawberries, apples, cherries or flowers, and eating the first few before you've paid. It works almost anywhere there are farms, takes no skill, and suits toddlers and grandparents equally well.

Where to do it

Kent, United Kingdom

Kent has long been called the Garden of England, and its pick-your-own farms open for strawberries in early summer, then raspberries and cherries, then apples. It's an easy day out from London in the United Kingdom. Fields close when they're picked out, so check the farm's page the morning you go.

Hudson Valley, United States

North of New York City, orchards open for apple picking from late summer into autumn, often with cider doughnuts and pumpkin patches. Autumn weekends in this corner of the United States are crowded; weekdays are calmer.

Tochigi and Aomori, Japan

Strawberry hunting, ichigo-gari, happens in greenhouses from about December or January to May, often as all-you-can-eat for a set time; Tochigi is one of the big strawberry areas. In autumn, Aomori, the country's apple heartland in the north of Japan, opens its orchards.

Finnish forests, Finland

Under everyman's rights, anyone may pick wild berries and mushrooms in Finland's forests, free and without asking, as long as they leave protected plants alone. Bilberries ripen in July and August, lingonberries a little later. Sweden and Norway have similar rights.

Okanagan Valley, Canada

British Columbia's dry, sunny Okanagan grows cherries, then peaches, apricots and apples, and U-pick signs line the roads in summer. Lakeside towns make it a good weekend in western Canada.

Bollenstreek, Netherlands

Between Leiden and Haarlem, the bulb fields bloom in spring. A few farms run tulip-picking gardens where you cut your own bunch; the commercial fields are off-limits, and Keukenhof in the Netherlands is a show garden for looking, not picking.

Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, Australia

East of Melbourne, berry and cherry farms open in early summer, which in Australia means around Christmas. Pair a picking morning with a winery lunch.

When to go

• Strawberries: late spring to early summer (greenhouses in Japan, winter to spring).
• Cherries: early summer.
• Wild berries and blueberries: mid to late summer.
• Apples: late summer to autumn.
• Tulips: spring.

South of the equator, the same calendar runs about six months later.

How to make it happen

• Check the farm's site or social page the same morning for what's ripe and whether it's open after rain.
• Go early, before the heat and before the best rows are picked.
• Wear closed shoes, a hat and sunscreen, and bring water.
• Follow farm rules: ask before tasting, keep children in the rows, and don't climb trees.
• Wash fruit before you eat it, under running water.
• Check for ticks after walking through long grass or forest, especially behind knees and along hairlines.
• Never eat a wild berry or mushroom you can't identify for certain.