00:00As the landscape warms with autumnal hues, it is the perfect time to embrace the outdoors and immerse yourself in
00:06nature's beauty.
00:08I've come to Church View Farm in Lydget, where the air is crisp and the scenery is bursting with colour.
00:14It's very satisfying because you're keeping farmers farming by supporting them, coming pumpkin picking.
00:21But also it's satisfying for us to see all the children happy and they are so happy.
00:26You know, we had a busload yesterday and the excitement, they couldn't control it.
00:31You know, it's just lovely to see them year after year.
00:35Set across 12 acres of picturesque fields are planted thousands of pumpkins from knobbly and wrinkly to shiny, lumpy and
00:43even little white varieties.
00:45There's pumpkins for every purpose.
00:47Well, we've got the yellow ones, the orange ones.
00:51We've got the white ones.
00:52We've got the miniature ones in the orange and in the white.
00:55They're not ornate.
00:57They'll keep from now till Christmas if you want to do them with silver or gold colouring spray.
01:04Not just for Halloween.
01:05Or you can insert them into the larger pumpkins as though it's a baby.
01:10The mother's eating the baby.
01:12All sorts you can do with pumpkin.
01:14Pumpkin soup is lovely.
01:15You cut the top off your pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and the shreddy part inside, the soft part.
01:23And then when you get to the hard part, you peel that, chunk it up in the pan with carrots,
01:29onions, garlic, chilli, vegetable sock cubes.
01:35Cook it all and then blitz it.
01:37And it's delicious.
01:39And it freezes as well.
01:40The yields have been good here.
01:43However, they are down across the UK for 2026 because of the hottest summer on record.
01:49Pumpkins are roughly 90% water.
01:51So the lack of rainfall means that the fruit is staying much smaller and developing thicker skins or just stopping
01:58growing prematurely.
02:00Our crop has been absolutely fine.
02:03Not complaining at all.
02:05They may be not as big as what they usually are, but we've still got some big pumpkins and plenty,
02:12plenty.
02:13Thousands of medium and thousands of small.
02:16So we're not short.
02:18Everyone's enjoying them.
02:20Many local farms like here aren't just offering pumpkin picking on Saturday and Sundays.
02:25There's a fairground rides.
02:27There's food and drink offerings too.
02:29So if you're looking to soak up some autumn fun, grab your ellies and head out as autumn is fleeting,
02:35but memories are forever.
02:37They're not going to a supermarket.
02:39It's letting children see how things are grown and to respect farming, not to damage things.
02:47And, you know, they all want the biggest one.
02:50You know, mum wants them to have medium.
02:51They want the biggest.
02:53But it's just so lovely.
02:54You see them coming up at the wheelbarrows and they're still excited, you know.
02:58So it's lovely.
02:59I love it.
02:59I love it.
