First summer pick your own flowers day at Grow, Totteridge Academy school farm, where monster crop of pumpkins is under cultivation

A bumper crop of 1,000 or more pumpkins is expected at Grow, the school farm at The Totteridge Academy, where volunteers are having to water the crops to cope with the drought during the summer holidays.

Eve Rogers, the newly-appointed managing director of the farm – see above – surveyed the crop in one of several large plots devoted to pumpkins.

The aim is to have them all ready to harvest in time for Grow’s Pumpkin Time celebration on Saturday 24 October – just one of several summer events being held at the farm.

“Given the length of the drought, our volunteer watering teams have been tremendous.

“They start at 7am and we could not have survived without them as there is no irrigation system for the farm and the watering has to be done by hand.”

Already looking like a possible prize winner for the largest pumpkin is a rapidly maturing squash which has been grown by one of the families benefiting from Grow’s popular community programme supporting low-income families with no outdoor space.

“This amazing pumpkin has been grown by a single mum and her two children who come every week to look after vegetables in their raised bed,” said Eve.

Grow supports families living below the poverty line with a project helping them to grow, cook and share their own produce.

The farm’s first Pick Your Own Flowers event proved highly successful with families allowed to walk through the farm and choose their flowers.

Three more are planned for the rest of the summer – on Saturday 8 August, Saturday 5 September and Saturday 19 September.

A new event in Grow’s summer calendar are weekends for volunteering when parents and children can visit the farm and help with the cultivation – starting on Sunday 23 August.

At the first of this summer’s Pick Your Own events a stream of visitors left the farm in Barnet Lane with bunches of flowers and vegetables.

“Here I am coming away with two wonderful bunches of the freshest possible flowers,” said Jo, see above left, with Grow Farm trustee Sam.

“Totteridge Academy cannot be praised enough for encouraging what is a great initiative – a school farm supported by the local community.”

Another happy purchaser was Robert with a bag of tomatoes and another of new potatoes.

“I have an allotment myself and I now have allotment envy seeing what wonderful fruit and vegetables are being produced here by Grow.

“I have to admit I am jealous just looking around the farm at all their crops. It is an amazing achievement by the Totteridge Academy pupils, parents and volunteers.”