Essex farmers make pumpkin patches stand out due to demand

Nov 01, 2024

A farmer has spent "tens of thousands of pounds" on a pumpkin patch mosaic display to stand out from the crowd as the industry becomes more competitive.

Jonathan Lukies, 53, is a farmer at Cammas Hall Farm near Chelmsford, Essex, and has been running a pumpkin patch for the past 10 years.

He said that as pumpkin patches have grown in popularity over the past few years, many farmers have been left feeling like they have to think outside the box in order to attract visitors.

Mr Lukies spent more £10,000 to make a pumpkin mosaic, which took 1,000 hours of craftwork and includes 3,500 pumpkins.

The vegetable-based artwork features pumpkins in a variety of colours placed on a wooden frame, which is tilted at an angle.

The farmer added: "Every year we have to have something original."

Some people have stopped buying pumpkins from supermarkets in favour of selecting ones directly from a patch.

Mr Lukies said the farming industry was struggling and a lot of farms were looking to establish other sources of income, such as pumpkin patches.

He said: "Farming is searching for other streams of revenue.

"More people are doing it because it is in demand so it's like following a trend."

Ross McGowan, a farmer at his family run business Hatter's Farm, Takeley, Bishop's Stortford, has been running a pumpkin patch for the past five years.

He said: "It is getting more competitive this year and that is more of a challenge, every garden centre does [pumpkin patches] now."

Mr McGowan said a "horrendous amount of money has been put into it" to attract people to the farm.

This year his farm have put together a pumpkin-themed haunted house and glow in the dark patches.

He said there was not this much competition when he started running pumpkin patches five years ago.

Emily French is a partner at Foxes Farm Produce in Colchester, which has been running a pumpkin patch for nine years.

Mrs French and her husband Guy are also pumpkin wholesalers across the country.

She said: "It has been a tricky [season], there has been a lot of rain." But added the farm has managed to keep up with demand.

She said last year the farm saw "monster" pumpkins because they had the right amount of rain.

"We are lucky that we have been growing pumpkins on the farm for 15 years.

"Some farmers have not had crops and we have supplied their whole patch."

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