Suffolk farmer James Foskett launches first pumpkin patch

James Foskett's pick-your-own site lies on Woodbridge's Sandy Lane just a short distance from town on a six acre (2.5ha) field which he rents from gardening experts Notcutts.

James - who has been farming the field for many years - said the spot was ideal as it was close to town.

The pick-your-own patch is the brainchild of James' daughter, Jessica Church, who is on maternity leave from Savills in Ipswich.

While off, she helping her father with marketing tasks while also looking after her newborn, Barney, six months, and toddler, Billy, aged three.

"I just think it's a prime spot," she said. "I have wanted to do it for a really long time and this opportunity came up. Dad saw it as a good opportunity and the spot we have got in Woodbridge is just perfect to be able to do it."

The family farm - based at Bromeswell - is more remote, but this site is closer to people, she explained. 

"It's a way for me to get involved in the business," she said. ""I'm really excited. Obviously I want everything to run perfectly. I'm just really excited to be involved in something like this. I'm hoping it's really successful and we do it again next year."

The site opens on the weekend of Saturday, September 30/Sunday, October 1, from 10am to 4pm, and will continue across all the weekends in October. It will be open all week during the autumn half term.

Jessica will be manning the site alongside husband, Gwyn Church, who works for another land agent - Brooks Leney.

There will be a small marquee, coffee vans, a hot food stall - and a stall selling fresh, organic vegetables from James Foskett Farms. There will also be adult and child-sized wheelbarrows for carrying the pumpkins, so families can make their pumpkin picking into a fun day out.

James explained that farming on the field had been disrupted while underground cables from an offshore East Anglia ONE wind farm were laid from Bawdsey to Claydon over a five or six-year period. So growing pumpkins felt like a good way to reintroduce it - after planting a cover crop to build the fertility in the field.

"The field has been out of production for a long while so we didn't know what to put it back into," he explained. 

"There isn't really a pumpkin patch in Woodbridge - that's partly why we have done it. It's something different and it's being pushed along by my daughter Jess."

The result was what James describes as "a reasonable crop of pumpkins". Although not one of the crops he normally grows, he has a lot of experience of getting the best out of similar plants.

"You have to remember we have been growing butternut squash for 15 years - we have used the same methods."

The farm used some labour to hand-weed rather than spray the crop, which consists of about six or seven different varieties - from the traditional orange pumpkin to more unusual varieties - including a blue-coloured one, some small whites and some nobbly pumpkins.

"There isn't really a pumpkin patch in Woodbridge - that's partly why we have done it. It's something different and it's being pushed along by my daughter Jess."

James Foskett farms 3500 acres of made up of owned and rented land within a 35 mile radius of Low Farm, Bromeswell. Most is in the Deben Valley.

Its main crops are potatoes, then onions. Others include sugar beet, carrots, cereals and organic vegetables.