Yesterday we went shopping to York which is a good hours drive away from where we live and on the way back, we turned left instead of right at a t-junction which caused Mr Frugal to mutter a few choice words under his breath and the kids to squeal in delight when they saw a sign for a pick your own strawberry farm.
Their squeals meant that we didn’t turn back as Mr Frugal wanted to but that we carried on down what seemed to be the longest road ever to find the farm. We eventually found it about five miles down the road but they’d closed down the pick your own fruit side of the farm last week which clearly caused great distress in the back of the car. He did point out that we could still buy some freshly grown fruit and veg from him though and pointed us in the direction of a weather old shed before walking off in the other direction.
After five miles of driving down very bumpy country roads there was no way that Mr Frugal was leaving empty handed so we headed over to the shed and peered inside. The walls were lined with a variety of different home grown fruit and vegetables with a big price list on the wall. There was a set of scales so you could weigh what you wanted and work out how much you owed and then there was a cash box which was FULL of money – not a huge amount but about £30 I think from a quick glance inside!
I wish I’d taken photos but I left my phone in the car and thought it looked a bit dodgy of me to run back and get it.
We peered outside the shed so we could let the farmer know what we wanted and pay him for it but he just shouted from a distance to us that we should just work out what we owed and leave the money in the honesty box!
How trusting is that?
I can’t believe that in this day and age, people are still trusting in this way and it made me feel all warm and fluffy because he’s clearly never had a bad experience with it based on the way he just walked away and left us to pick what we wanted and do the right thing by paying what we owed.
We had a great time choosing what we wanted and making sure that we bought the weirdest shaped carrots that we could find and then we paid the honesty box and walked out. The farmer just waved us on our way and said he’d see us next time we were passing and we got in the car and drove away without him checking that we’d paid or anything.
Back in the car, we were all chatting about how it was lovely that people didn’t take advantage of things like this when another sign caught my eye. This one was for Yorkshire Lavender Farm which a super quick Google told me was a lovely place to visit with no entry fee.
Cue more swearing (slightly louder this time from an impatient to get home Mr Frugal) and another 15 minutes of unplanned driving and we arrived at Yorkshire Lavender. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten that Lavender attracts bees and wasps which meant it wasn’t a great place to visit for poor Master Frugal who hates them.
There were so many of them in the car park alone that I said we’d just leave straight way but he said he wanted to be brave so I didn’t miss out (aaaaah) so we got out of the car and wandered in. It’s completely free to walk around the gardens and enjoy the amazing views and there’s a gift shop and a tea shop which looked like it served lovely cakes.
We had a lovely (albeit short) look around but the fact that there were bees everywhere and the clouds were getting ominously darker meant that we cut our visit very short and didn’t see most of what was there. What we did see was beautiful though….
I did learn a few things about the benefits of lavender and bought a few bunches to bring home with me so I might share a bit of that with you soon but for now I just wanted to share our wrong turn adventures with you.
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