Intros, Summer and Pumpkins

Join Emily 'The Pumpkin Patch Mum' on her new podcast where she provides you with an introduction to pumpkin farming whilst juggling her lifestyle as a mum.  This episode gives you an insight into Emily's life at the start of the pumpkin season.

www.foxesfarmproduce.co.uk

Transcript

Episode 1 – The Pumpkin Patch Mum

With Emily French Foxes Farm Produce Colchester, Essex

www.foxesfarmproduce.co.uk 

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the pumpkin patch. Mum, this is a heartwarming and down to Earth podcast where we dive into the vibrant, busy and sometimes messy life of me and mum who also happens to be a passionate pumpkin farmer. Join me Emily as I share my unique journey of balancing the demands of motherhood. With the challenges and joys of running a bustling pumpkin farming business, each episode will offer a peek behind the scenes and life. Farm from the early morning harvest to the late night planning sessions, all while navigating the everyday adventures of raising a family. I will share personal stories, triumphs, and lessons learned, offering insights into everything from the art of growing the perfect pumpkin to the reality of managing a business with kids in tow. It's not all going to be about. Pumpkins, though, expect conversations about the up and downs of parenting, tips for juggling work and family life, and plenty of laughs along the way. So whether you're a fellow farmer, a parent, or just someone who loves a good story. The pumpkin patch mum is a space where we can all find connection, inspiration and a little bit of pumpkin magic, so TuneIn every week for heartfelt stories, practical advice and a celebration of the beautiful chaos that comes with being a mum and a farmer. So hello, I am Emily. As I've mentioned, I am a pumpkin patch. Mum, I've got two adorable children. A boy aged 6 and a little girl aged 2. So yes, we've hit the terrible two age. I also run a pumpkin farm, which is a wholesale pumpkin business, so we sell and supply pumpkins throughout the UK. And we also run a pumpkin patch, which I'll pick your own pumpkin patches based in Colchester and Basildon in Essex. So it's safe to say that the summer holidays are pretty busy for me as pumpkin season is just around the corner when they return back to school. So today I thought I'd share with you a quick. Day in the life of a pumpkin farmer on a day like today. So not only do we do pumpkin farming here, we also run a sunflower patch. So the morning started for me opening up the sunflower patch. So that means we have to open up the kiosk, turn the generator on, make sure the lights are working, make sure the coffee machines working and generally get the games. So within our sunflower patches and also our pumpkin patches, we have a field of fun which is perfect for the children. So we offer farm obstacles. We have games, we have wooden games, and it's really good space for the children to just explore being outside and enjoying being children. Then so every morning we have to replace and make sure that all the games are put out all ready and all nice for the children to use the next day. So once that's set up I can then leave there and head down to the yard where I meet the pumpkin patch pick. So the pumpkin pickers are our harvest workers. So as you can imagine on the Pumpkin Farm, harvest isn't done using a combined harvester. It's very manual. So what that means is instead of on an arable farm where you would have one combined driver, the combine and then corn carts we have. One tractor driver and lots of pumpkin pickers, so the morning jobs are checking in. The pumpkin pickers driving them to the relevant field that they're in, and then making sure that they know what they're doing for the day. I always make sure they're wearing gloves. They've all got clip. Others. And then I show them that they are clipping the pumpkins from the vines. They're kicking back the leaves and then this afternoon they will be putting the pumpkins they've clipped in the potato boxes. So leaf cover is really important for pumpkin growing season. So if you can imagine the pumpkin plant is at the centre. Of the pumpkin and within those the leaves grow and they grow. Big pumpkin plants have big, massive, actually pumpkin leaves. And the reason they have such big leaves is because they act as rain catchers. So for example, this summer we have hardly had any rain since we planted. That means that any rain we do get is vital, that they go into the pumpkin plant. So the big leaves help that because once they've caught any rain droplets. Even just a bit of Jew sometimes that water that rain is then collected on the leaves and then gently dripped down into the pumpkin plant so that it helps nourish it. So, as I say, the pumpkin leaves are super important for the growing season. But when it comes to the harvest season, they can actually be super. Annoying because they are so big, and if they haven't died back yet, which they already haven't this year, it does mean that the pumpkins can actually get hidden underneath such heavy leaf cover. So it means that the pumpkin pickers have to work extra hard. They have to kick the pumpkin leaves back to make sure that they can see which pumpkins they are clipping. On the vine to make sure a they're not missing any pumpkins and B what variety we're on. So today we are actually starting harvest in our squash. So as pumpkin farmers within our pumpkin patches, we supply and sell a lot of different pumpkin plants. So we have little tiny pumpkins, which we call munchkins or baby booze. We have different coloured pumpkins, we've got white pumpkins, we've got green pumpkins, we've got pumpkins that are better for eating. Such as the Grey Crown Prince Pumpkins or the onion, squash pumpkins, or a kabocha squash. And we also have the pumpkins that I get really excited about. So one of the favourite jobs that I do on the farm back in April time. Is I put together the seed order now. That means I get to spend time looking through garden catalogues, checking out what the new and upcoming pumpkin varieties are going to be this year. It's might sound boring to some of you, but it honestly is one of my favourite jobs and I love the fun and funky seeds and that we can buy. I love the ones that end up being * pumpkins or ye brightly coloured pumpkins, just those ones that are a bit more unique and that is where they're starting today, the harvest. So I'm looking forward to when I head back to the field later, seeing the squash pumpkins, the Swan pumpkins. The little pear pump. Skins and some pumpkins that I honestly don't even know what they're called, but I just know that they are really called good looking pumpkins. So what we do is harvest is we clip during the mornings when the when there's a bit of dew on the ground and when it's easier just to kind of get on and clip as many pumpkins as we can in the afternoons. We then put potato. Boxes on the. Pumpkins and the pumpkins that have been clipped in the morning get loaded into those potato boxes. So every day in the farm we have a couple of tractor drivers and we all have a guess of how many pumpkin potato boxes we think we can fill. And then at the end of the season, there's always a bit of a prize for the person that has chosen the right answer. So that. Today, and we won't believe that also, Bertie, my little son has already started carving and painting pumpkins. So people often ask me, you know, what do the children think about pumpkins? Are they into them? And unfortunately, the answer is, well, I say unfortunately. Fortunately for me, yes, they love pumpkins, our little girl. Has gone to sleep with a little tiny munchkin in her car. Not because she just will not part with it. And as I say, our son is already carving and painting pumpkins as he is currently on holiday and being the creative little artist he is. That's what he loves to do. So tune in with me the pumpkin patch mum for the next episode where I'll share more stories on what we're up to.