Pick-your-own fruit and vegetables near Paris

A short drive east of Paris, La Cueillette de Nolongues, in Coulommiers, Seine-et-Marne, was set up by Christophe and Claire-Marie Charpentier in the 1990s as a way of diversifying the farm’s income. Traditionally, the family grows cereals including wheat, maize, beet and mustard.

“But small farmers have to diversify these days,” says their son Alexandre. “I am working with my father now, and I’ll take over when he retires. 

“We live in a farmhouse beside the pick-your-own fields and we also have chambres d’hôtes, which work well.”

The pick-your-own fields are open from early May until the end of October. “May and October are the busy months, because of the strawberries, cherries and apricots, and then in the autumn, everything is ripe and ready to be picked, including apples, pears, plums, tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines, cabbages, peppers, celery, courgettes and Halloween pumpkins. October is the month with the most choice. People come from Paris at the weekend, but during the week, customers are mostly locals who appreciate the produce they buy here is fresh because they pick it all themselves.

“The fruit trees are less than two metres tall, making it easy to pick fruit. No one needs to scale a ladder or climb into the tree! We also have fruit hedges which make picking easy. We are in between two main roads and right near a roundabout, so are very easy to find. We don’t harvest crops ourselves, except sometimes if there is leftover fruit, we make fruit juice.

“We have bags and wheelbarrows for people to use and, once they’ve finished picking, they go to the cabin to get everything weighed and to pay. We also sell some eggs, honey and fruit juice in the cabin, but that’s all. We used to have a boutique, but it never really worked. 

“The pick-your-own is much better. People really like it. Parents come with their children to show them how things grow and where their food comes from. It can be educational in the sense that it teaches them the difference between processed and fresh foods. Most respect the plants, although some people walk on the vegetables, but our clientele are mostly rural and understand nature.”

Picking hours at cueillette-de-nolongues.com