A GENERATIONAL farmer has set up his own pumpkin project as he follows in his family’s footsteps.

Finn Cousins and his family own a farm just off Galley’s Roundabout by Freeport, Braintree.

After going to university, Finn has come back and started his own pumpkin patch for the wider community.

He said: “This farm has been in my family for 300 years, and as a kid I often helped in harvest time, doing jobs, driving tractors and more.

“I went to uni to do economics at St Andrews, I had just graduated and come back to the farm and wanted to get involved again.

“I saw an article on pumpkin patches and realised there weren’t many in the area, so decided to go for it.”

Finn alongside family and friends spent three days in March planting 5,000 pumpkin seeds... by hand.

About 4,000 survived, with a possibility of two or three pumpkins sprouting per seed, meaning Finn is hoping for about 10,000 pumpkins.

He now plans to open the patch up during October for the wider Essex community, to sell for Halloween.

Finn said: “They are all growing really quickly now. They went from just starting to sprout to now where they are getting to a very healthy size.

“They will be ready any time from September onwards, and the plan was always to open and sell them to the public.

“The reaction has been incredible, people are excited for it now let alone when the pumpkins properly come out.”

Finn also added how on a personal level with his family heritage, it has been a great project for him.

He said: “The whole thing has been great.

“Coming out of the EU, which really supported farmers, it is feared that lots of farmers in the next five to ten years may go out of business.

“We are fortunate we have a nice size of land, so we want to stay farming to be a current and viable farm for the future.

“Of course, it is also nice to follow on the 300 years of legacy on this farm too.”

The patch will be open from October 7 to 31. For more information, visit their Instagram page at @ottospatch, or on Facebook at Otto's Pumpkin Patch HERE.