Artichokes

Availability: Back in 2025

When to pick: From late May, with a second crop arriving in August.

How to pick: Bring your own secateurs from home or we can lend you some from the shop for a £2 refundable deposit. Just under the head, snip them off at an angle and pop into a bag – quick and easy!

Ready picked: If picking is not for you then we have a skilled team of professionals in the fields who pick our best every single day. You can find our ready-picked fruit & vegetables in the Farm Shop fridges. If you would like to order a large volume of fruit or vegetables for an event, we’ll be happy to help. Please contact us using our contact form or call the shop on 01865 358 309.

What we grow & how to cook: We recommend steaming our Globe artichokes for around 15 minutes. You then slowly peel back each individual leaf and dip into melted butter (or sauce of your choice) and scrape the juicy flesh with your teeth. As you get closer to the heart you can eat more of the leaf. After a few minutes of hard work you will reach the heart – the fleshiest and the best bit, in our opinion!

Plan your visit to Rectory Farm pick your own.

Recipe Ideas

Artichoke & Spinach Shakshuka

Serves 4

Ingredients

5 artichokes (hearts)
300g spinach
1 white onion, finely chopped
150g garlic & herb cream cheese
150ml sour cream
300g cottage cheese
100g cheddar cheese, grated
125g sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
½ tsp salt and pepper
¼ tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp plain flour
4 eggs

Method

Steam and prepare your artichokes, retaining just the hearts. Chop up into dice sized pieces and set aside.
Heat a frying pan over medium heat with 1 tbsp oil. Saute your onions until soft.
Add the spinach to the pan and cook until soft.
Stir in flour until combined.
Add the cream cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, and cheddar cheese and mix.
Add in the sun-dried tomatoes, and season well.
Continue to cook until the mixture starts to bubble on the outside.
Make 4 evenly spaced wells in the artichoke dip and crack in your eggs.
Turn down the heat to low and place a lid on the pan.
Cook until the whites of the egg are opaque (around 7-10 mins)
Serve with your favourite crusty bread!

Recipe by Ben and Julia at Rethink Cooking

Also available today

Pinks

Available: PYO open now

These dainty frilled flowers grow in an array of shades of pink and white and smell absolutely divine! Read more

Potatoes

Available: In farm shop from now

Sacks of our Saxon, Jelly and Mozart potatoes are available in the farm shop from the autumn. Read more

Sweetcorn

Available: PYO open now

Sweetcorn tastes the best when picked and eaten on the same day - you can pick yours here from late summer into early autumn. Read more

farm shop

We sell all our own homegrown produce when in season - including several varieties of our own potatoes - picked and on the shelves within a few hours. We work hard to source the best quality local products from Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and The Cotswolds. In our fridges you’ll find local meat, pies and sausage rolls from Eadles Farm in neighbouring Beckley village, chicken, lamb and beef from D'Oyley's Farm in Stadhampton, award-winning organic cheeses from Nettlebed Creamery, and traditional farmhouse Cotswold Butter – plus all manner of condiments and cooking sauces, baking supplies, biscuits, pantry essentials, free range eggs and milk from Oxfordshire farms and dairies. Our bread arrives each morning from Oxford’s Natural Bread Company and Degustibus artisan bakers in Abingdon.

help us to reduce waste

Please try wherever possible to bring your own containers and carrier bags when you visit our Farm Shop and PYO. We offer a discount on all our PYO fruit and vegetables when you bring your own container - do good and save money!

Lots of small containers for PYO are better than one large one, as soft fruit will easily bruise and squash at the bottom of a deep container.

Use our "bring your own weigh station" to weigh your containers before picking – we can then deduct these from the weight of your fruit when you come to pay at the end.

Remember to bring your own 1 litre bottle for milk or buy a Rectory Farm glass bottle in the shop.

pick your own

Come and pick your own Oxfordshire fruit, vegetables and flowers from our 45 acres of colourful produce, all grown just for you.

You can enjoy Rectory Farm produce practically all year round - it simply doesn't get fresher than picking your own. Start with asparagus brunches and rhubarb tarts and crumbles in April, and then enjoy a long summer of strawberries, artichoke, broad beans, courgettes, raspberries, redcurrants, blackberries and blackcurrants.

Autumn brings a hearty crop of sweetcorn and pumpkins, and our many varieties of potatoes are available to buy all year round, from baby salad potatoes to red and white spuds perfect for baking, mashing, roasting and boiling.

Find out more

PYO

The Rectory Farm picking season runs from April - October, starting with asparagus and finishing with pumpkins.

Our strawberries ripen up at the start of May and finish into September. Check out our PYO page to see what's in season when, and for lots of recipe ideas.

Plan your visit

Enjoy a day out at Rectory Farm picking all your favourite fruit and vegetables to take home and enjoy. Remember to bring your own punnets and carrier bags to help us reduce plastic use.

Visit the shop from March - December to stock up on kitchen essentials and all our ready-picked fruit and vegetables if you’re short on time.

rectory farm cafe

Join us for coffee and locally baked pastries, a pot of tea and a slice of homemade cake or a cool ice-cream topped with a flake.

We have both indoor seating and outdoor seating (covered and uncovered) and plenty of space for families and groups to gather and catch up over good food and drink.