A MONTH IN THE LIFE OF…

Nottinghamshire pumpkin farmer James Maxey

In October, the fields of my family farm are carpets of orange. My mum and dad own the land, near Kirklington in Nottinghamshire, but I started cultivating pumpkins on it ten years ago, when I was 13. I’d harvest them with my gran’s old secateurs, then sit on a crate at the farm gate selling them for pocket money. Now, we grow 40,000 pumpkins across 50 acres. Ours is one of the biggest patches in the area.

Every October, thousands of people come to pick their own pumpkins. I suggested this option to my dad when we expanded in 2012. Letting people pick their own actually makes our lives easier because we don’t have to harvest the fruit ourselves! We lend visitors wheelbarrows so that they can cart their haul across the field.

In the run-up to Halloween, days start at 5am. Most of the year, I work six days a week, but in October, I never stop. It’s so hectic we have to hire more than 30 extra pairs of hands to help. My first job in the morning is to cut pumpkins from their stems, to make sure people don’t trip over them or trail them across the fields. Customers arrive from 9am. Then I’m on my feet until we close at 5pm.

It feels like a festival – all centred around pumpkins. We offer sausage rolls and lots of locally made produce, including ice cream served from a horse box. There’s a spooky woodland walk and I take guests on tractor rides – although, on most days

I end up manning the car park. Often, we’ll have more than 100 cars here at a time.

We’re always weather watching. A couple of years ago, heavy rain washed our whole crop away. And this spring, we couldn’t get the tractor into the field for planting because the ground was so sodden. Ideally, we want it to rain just enough that we don’t need to water. We used to do that with a hosepipe, and it was hard work – by the time you got to the bottom of the field, you’d have to start at the top again. Luckily we have an irrigation system now.

Our pumpkins come in many different shapes and colours, including green and blue. There’s even a ‘warty goblin’ variety with lumps all over it. Our traditional orange ones have a lovely deep hue because of all the clay in the soil round here.

The biggest one I’ve ever grown was 200 kilos. I could have carved it out and used it as a boat. I entered it in the Southwell Ploughing Match competition and it won heaviest in show. On average, our pumpkins are about ten kilos, although some of our varieties are only the size of a fist.

Oddly, I don’t like the taste of pumpkins but I’m glad others do because we stock local restaurants. We also use ours to make soup, chutney and gin, which we sell in our on-site shop. I don’t have time for carving but do like to display an array of squashes at the farm gate. People find them magical. It’s nice that they’re charmed by something we grow from seed.

To me, growing pumpkins isn’t really work – it’s a way of life.

I always wanted to be a farmer. I’m the third generation of Maxeys to farm in Nottinghamshire and I enjoy working with my parents. Dad and I are always out in the fields, while Mum takes care of paperwork. He and I might bicker, but we always have good fun.

FOR MORE INFORMATION see pickupapumpkin.com.