2024 Scotland Plum U-Pick Farms and Orchards

Plum U-Pick Orchards in Scotland in 2024, by county

Below are the PYO orchards and farms for plums that we know of in this area. Not all areas have plums orchards or farms that are open to the public. If you know of any others, please tell us using the add a farm form!

Remember to always check with the farm's own website or Facebook page before you go - or call or email them if they don't have a website or Facebook page. Conditions at the farms and crops can change literally overnight, so if you want to avoid a wasted trip out there - check with the farm directly before you go! If I cannot reach them, I DON'T GO!

PLEASE report closed farms, broken links and incorrect info using the "Report Corrections" form below.

Aberdeen City and Shire (Grampian)

Argyll and The Isles

Ayrshire and Arran

Borders

Dumfries and Galloway

Dundee and Angus

• Charleton Fruit Farm - Apples, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, currants (red and black), gooseberries, pears, peas, plums, potatoes, pumpkins, raspberries (red), raspberries (Spring, red), raspberries (Autumn, red), raspberries (yellow), raspberries (Spring, yellow), raspberries (Autumn, yellow), raspberries (black), raspberries (Spring, black), raspberries (Autumn, black), rhubarb, strawberries, tayberries, tomatoes, other vegetables, U-pick and already picked, gift shop, concessions / refreshment stand, ziplines, pedal kart track
  Hillside, Montrose , DD109EW. Phone: 07703110865. Email: Mat@charleton-farm.co.uk. Open: Daily between 10 am and 4 pm. Picking updates: Click here for picking updates. Directions: Just off the A92 one mile north of Montrose. Click here for a map and directions. Payment: Cash, Debit cards, Visa/MasterCard, AmEx. Click here for our Facebook page. Additional veg grown and sold in store (including white asparagus). Restaurant and take-away, free kids adventure park, shop, holiday rentals, pick your own. Wedding venue opens September 2022. Entrance is free: Strictly no picnics. Free range eggs - see the chickens alongside the farm shop - soft fruit, own preserves and other local foods. They have a Coffee shop with an imaginative menu, including fresh fruit and vegetables from the farm, an indoor and outdoor setting, gift shop local produce and somewhere for the kids to play. April starts with the home grown asparagus followed in June by ready picked strawberries which then leads us to July and August for the pick your own season. (UPDATED: April 27, 2022)

Edinburgh and The Lothians

• West Craigie Farm Shop - strawberries, raspberries, cherries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, brambles, tayberries and pumpkins, courgettes
  West Craigie Farm, South Queensferry, Edinburgh, West Lothian EH30 9TR. Phone: 0131 3191048. Email: john@craigies.co.uk. Open: daily, from 9 am to 5 pm. All fruits are available for PYO and ready-picked during the season at Craigie's. We also have most of the fruits available frozen in the Farm Shop throughout the year and make jams and chutneys from our fruit which are sold throughout Scotland under "The Jam Kitchen" name. Directions: visit our website. We operate a entry fee to our fields during the PYO season, refundable against fruit picked. Simply buy a West Craigie Farm Shop entry voucher online ahead of your visit to gain entry to the field. You can check out our availability report below to see what’s available prior to your visit. On arrival, show your entry voucher in exchange for a basket and a mapLINK and we will guide you to the best field depending on what you would like to pick. All you have to do is pick your own fruit, fill your basket then weigh and pay! Entry to the field is from a pre-purchased voucher (in 2020, £5 per Adult and £2.50 per child) which is redeemable against the fruit picked. We do not offer refunds where the fruit picked comes in under the cost of the voucher. When’s the fruit in season? It depends on the weather, but generally PYO strawberries start at the end of June and go on into August. Raspberries start mid July till mid August. We also have gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, Victoria plums, and big, beautiful sunflowers. See below for details (less fruit highlighted = less fruit, more highlighted = more fruit, no fruit highlighted = no fruit!). Register for our ‘e-newsletters’ and we’ll keep you up to date with what’s available when. Click here for a link to our Facebook page.  (UPDATED: 11 December 2023, JBS) (UPDATED: 04 April 2016, JBS) (UPDATED: 23 July 2008)

Fife

Greater Glasgow, Lanarkshire, The Clyde Valley

Highlands

• Wester Hardmuir - strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, cherries, black, red and white currents, loganberries, tayberries, blackberries and vegetables
  A96, Auldearn, 2 Nairn, IV12 5QG. Phone: 01309 641259. Email: james@hardmuir.com. Directions: click here for directions and a map. Open: 7 days, 8 am to 6 pm from 1st February to 31st December ; PYO: July and Aug from 8.00 am to dusk. They have a large range of soft fruits and vegetables for PYO, plus pre picked apples, plums and cherries. Early and late strawberries. The pick your own season usually begins towards the end of June when the outdoor strawberries and gooseberries begin to ripen. As the season progresses, raspberries, black, red and white currents, logan and tayberries, brambles are also available for pick your own. Later in the season, towards the end of August, our apple and plum orchards are open for pick your own. We are also hoping that our newly planted cherry orchard will produce its first crop this year. To pick your own use our baskets (or bring your own) and we will direct you to the best fields for picking. Then pick your fruit and we will weigh it upon your return to the farm shop and you pay. Since 1987 families have been visiting us to purchase ready picked and pick your own soft fruits. Our Farm Shop is well stocked with a wide range of home grown & local produce including vegetables, potatoes, preserves & home baking. We also supply nearby retail & wholesale businesses.
  

  Crop	Date
  Apples:	Late Aug to late October
  Brambles:	Mid July to mid September
  Blackcurrants:	Mid July to mid August
  Blueberries:	Mid July to late August
  Gooseberries:	Late June to late July
  Plums:	Late August to mid September
  Raspberries:	Late June till late September
  Redcurrants:	Mid July to late August
  Strawberries:	Mid June till late September

  
   (UPDATED: 11 July 2020, JBS) (ADDED: 02 August 2008)

Orkney

Outer Hebrides

Perthshire, Tayside

Ross-Shire

• Black Isle Berries - Strawberries, Raspberries, Gooseberries, Redcurrants, Blackcurrants, plums, Apples, damsons Cherries (although the birds usually beat us to them!)
  Ryefield Farm, Tore, Muir of Ord, Ross-Shire, IV6 7SB. Phone: 01463 811276. Mobile: 07812 753 950. Email: enquiries@blackisleberries.co.uk. Open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday all year round, PYO fruit is available from approximately the end of June to the end of August. Directions: 600 yards off the Tore roundabout on the Fortrose road. Just 10 minutes from Inverness and Dingwall. Black Isle Berries can be found at Ryefield Farm, Tore on the Black Isle, which has its own farm shop. There we can offer good quality, home-grown, seasonal fruit and vegetables. During the summer you can pick your own fruit. Please visit our Products page to find out what products we can offer.

Shetland

Stirling, Loch Lomond, The Trossachs & The Forth Valley

Plum, Damson and Gage Picking Tips, Recipes and Information

In the U.K., Plums Damsons and Gages typically peak during July for Sugar Plums; August for Blue, Yellow and Red Plums. In order to produce good local plums, producers depend on ideal spring and early summer weather conditions, and no late frosts. If you are looking for a plum festival, see this page.

Before you leave to go to the farm:

1. Always call before you go to the farm - Plums are affected by weather (both rain and cooler temperature) more than most crops. And when they are in season, a large turnout can pick a field clean before noon, so CALL first!
2. Leave early. On weekends, then fields may be picked clean by NOON!
3. Some growers furnish picking containers designed for plums, but they may charge you for them; be sure to call before you go to see if you need to bring containers.
   If you use your own containers, remember that heaping Plums more than 14 inches deep will bruise the fruit on the bottom. Plastic dishpans, metal oven pans with 3 inch tall sides and large pots make good containers.
4. Bring something to drink and a few snacks; you'd be surprised how you can work up a thirst and appetite! And don't forget hats and sunscreen for the sun. Bugs usually aren't a problem, but some deet might be good to bring along if it has been rainy.
5. You might want to ask whether the plums are! There are two major types of plums: "Freestone" and. "Clingstone". Freestone plums have flesh that slips easily away from the pit. Clingstones are a REAL pain, because the fruit tenaciously clings to the stone or pit! Most plum varieties grown today are freestone and are usually available (depending upon your location) from June through September. Some nectarines are freestone and some are clingstone. Freestone nectarines are available in June and July. Most plum varieties are clingstone.

Tips on How to Pick Plums

A plum is softer than most fruit, so it is important to pick a plum gently, with little pressure. Using the sides of your fingers rather your fingertips helps to avoid bruising. Grab the plum firmly and pull it straight off the branch. DON'T drop the plum into the basket, but set it in gently!

Picking Tips:

How to tell if the plums are ripe!

• Attached to the tree: Plums are best picked when the fruit separates easily from the twigs. If it is hard to pull off the tree, it isn't ripe! Plums will not ripen further once removed from the tree (they only "soften")
• Color: Green is definitely unripe, but you can't use red color as an indicator of how ripe a plum is. Different plum varieties have differing colours, darker is usually better in any variety. Pick them when the ground color changes from green to yellow, orange, red or even blue or purple (or a combination).
• Softness: unless you like your plums very firm, pick your plums with just a little "give" when gently pressed. Plums at this stage are great for eating, freezing, and baking. Plums won't ripen very much after picking!
• Odor: It should smell sweet and ripe!
• Larger plums are riper.
• Sugar plums grow in clusters, so carefully select the plum you want out of the cluster.
• Place them gently in a shallow wide container, no more than 8-inches deep, to avoid crushing the fruit.

 

Marks on the Plums: Bugs (particularly squash bugs and stink bugs) bite fruit during development and this results in some imperfections in the plum. This is especially the case with organically raised fruit. These look like dents in the plums if the plums were bitten by a bug when they were young. This causes a spot that does not grow properly and makes a wrinkle in the plum. There's nothing wrong with these plums. They may look funny, but they will taste just as good as blemish-free plums, and it's better not to have the pesticides!

When you get home

1. Spread the fruit out on towels or newspapers and separate any mushy or damaged fruit to use immediately.
2. Put a couple of days supply into the fridge, wash and cut the others and freeze them up!
3. Even under ideal conditions plums will only keep for a week in a refrigerator, so for best flavor and texture, use them as soon as possible after purchase

Make preserves, can or freeze!

Easy directions, step by step, with photos

• plum jam
• plum jelly
• canned plums
• freeze plums
• canned plum pie filling to use in the winter
• plum pie recipe
• plum-blueberry pie
• plum salsa
• Plum chutney
• Spiced plums
• Plum butter
• Pickled plums
• Here are some great and easy plum desert recipes, like easy plum cobbler..

Plum dessert recipes

• Plum Cobbler
  This recipe is easy and DELICIOUS!!!
• Plum Torte
• Italian Prune Plums (Empress Plums)

How much do you need?

Raw measures:

• About 2 medium plums = 1/2 cup sliced plums.
• About 4 medium plums = 1 /2cup pureed plum.
• About 3 medium plums = 1 /2 pound of plums

Process yields (Raw amounts to processed amounts)

• 2 to 21/2 pounds of fresh plums yields 1 quart canned
• 1 lb of fresh plums typically yields 3 cups of peeled, sliced plums or 2 cups or puree.
• It takes about 10 plums to fill one quart jar of canned plums.
• An average of 171/2 pounds of fresh plums are needed per canner load of 7 quarts;
• An average of 11 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints.
• 1 bushel = 48 to 50 pounds, yields approximately 18 to 25 quart jars.

 

Plums-Average retail price per pound and per cup equivalent

Plum pit tips

It's best to remove plum pits before you cook the plums. Cherry, plum, and apricot pits also contain amygdalin; the latter two, in potentially harmful amounts. Fortunately, plum and apricot pits are sufficiently large and hard that few people intentionally swallow or chew them. (The unapproved anti-cancer drug Laetrile is a semisynthetic derivative of amygdalin; a cheaper version of laetrile produced in Mexico came from crushed apricot pits.) See this page for more information.

Nutritional Information

• plums are virtually fat free. A medium size plum contains less than one gram of fat.
• plums are naturally sodium free.
• plums have no cholesterol.
• plums are a low calorie snack. A medium size plum contains only 40 calories.
• plums contain vitamin A which helps us see in dim light.
• plums are considered a good source of fiber. The skin of a plum provides both roughage and fiber.

Temporary Storage Tips

• Ripe plums have a creamy or golden undertone and "plumy-sweet" fragrance.
• Plums should be refrigerated and used within a few days.
• Putting plums in a loosely closed paper bag at room temperature for a day or two can help soften firm fruit - but they won't become sweeter or ripen further - that stopped when they were removed from th etree.
• For best flavor, allow the fruit to ripen fully on the tree.
• Store at 33 F to 40 F and high humidity (a vegetable drawer in the fridge).

Click here for farmshops in this area