About Rectory Farm
Rectory Farm grows a wide range of soft fruits, vegetables and potatoes. Pick Your Own is what they are renowned for, but ready picked produce directly from the farm is increasing in popularity, and you will find this available whenever it is in season.
Produce direct from the farm comes fresh as you’ll get it with quality second to none. Visiting Rectory Farm in Stanton St John is an enjoyable experience, particularly for families. Not only do you get to feel as though you have got back to the land while you pick strawberries or asparagus, but there is a bouncy castle, sandpit and play area for the children, not to mention tractor rides, and for that relaxing cup of coffee or perhaps a spot of lunch at The Tractor Shack.
Richard and Carla Stanley have been farming at Rectory Farm since 1980. Their Pick Your Own opened the same year, with just 1 1/2 acres of strawberries and 1/2 acre of raspberries. Since then, the PYO has grown to cover some 45 acres at their main PYO and shop site and a further 30 acres of asparagus.
The Stanleys also grow about 110 acres of potatoes (nearly 2000 tonnes a year) and 750 acres of wheat and oilseed rape. Nearly all the wheat (approx 1800 tonnes a year) is sold to Warburtons to make bread.
Richard and Carla rent the farm from New College, Oxford and the adjacent land at Manor Farm in Forest Hill from Lincoln College, Oxford. Rectory Farm has been owned by New College since 1539 and has provided food for the inhabitants of Oxford throughout the ages.
Rectory Farm PYO (Pick Your Own)
The Stanleys grow over thirty different types of fruit, vegetables and flowers at Rectory Farm for you to pick – all with their own specific season. Check what’s ready to pick before you visit. The PYO is open from Tuesday to Sunday. All the crops are subject to the weather, and occasionally, they may have to close the fields at short notice.
Rectory Farm Shop
The farm shop is open from April to October, plus four weeks at Christmas – selling homegrown produce, when in season, including several varieties of potatoes – picked and on the shelves within a few hours. They also work hard to source the best quality local products from Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and The Cotswolds.
The farm shop is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9.30am to 5.30pm and Sunday from 9.30am to 4.00pm. It is closed on Mondays. Click here to see what’s available in the shop now.
