UK’s only blue raspberry farm opens its doors and reveals secrets to growing ultra rare fruit
Funkin Fruit Farm – the only farm in the UK to grow the rare Blue Raspberry – is opening its doors to eager fruit pickers for the very first time today.
Spread across a two-hectare plot in the English countryside, Funkin Fruit Farm is offering the public the chance to pick its Blue Raspberries for one day only from 8am – 12pm.
Grown exclusively as the key ingredient in Funkin Cocktails’ Blue Raspberry Martini, the Blue Raspberry is different to your everyday fruit. It’s the only one in the world belonging to the GLUM (Growing Labour Under Melancholia) vegetation family, meaning they have a different growth cycle to traditional raspberries, and are instead known to thrive in colder, darker environments. While the unique blue hue can come and go in a seasonal pattern, it’s typically more apparent during the gloomier winter months.
The farmers at Funkin Fruit Farm have been known to adopt alternative methods to ensure that each Blue Raspberry receives the individual love and care it requires to reach the optimum level of winter blues for a guaranteed bountiful crop. These methods include Sally Rooney readings and serenading their seeds with sad girl pop music playlists including Olivia Rodrigo and Lana Del Rey; which are known to have an almost immediate effect.
In addition to picking a punnet of Blue Raspberries, during their visit guests will have the chance to learn about the unique growing process from the Funkin farmers themselves, explore the farm’s beautiful grounds, and finish off with a complimentary tasting of Funkin Cocktails’ new Blue Raspberry Martini.
A spokesperson for Funkin Fruit farm said: “We’ve had a brilliant growing season this year, with just the right amount of gloomy weather to produce a particularly successful crop.
“As the UK’s only producer of the rare blue raspberry, most of our fruit goes towards providing the key ingredient for Funkin Cocktails’ Blue Raspberry Martinis, but due to our bumper crop this year, we’re now opening our doors to the public and are inviting them to come down and pick their own.”