The warm weather continued much longer than we anticipated and meant that crops drilled early got a good start growing in front of the greedy pigeons and slugs! One particularly warm and bright afternoon I drove down to a field where our son, Tom, was spreading fertiliser onto this year's oilseed rape and took some beautiful close up images of the healthy young crop.

It was also the month that 'my boys' brought in the cattle from the fields and housed them in the straw filled cattle sheds.

Due to the long spell of dry weather in the summer our grass had stopped growing but 'sod's law' has it that now the cows have come inside and the autumn rain has arrived the grass is now growing again with the mild weather! Maybe the sheep will benefit from this in the early spring.

Louth Victorian Fair on 19th October was huge fun. I dressed up as a Victorian nurse (I only had a few cheeky comments that day!) and Andrew went as a Victorian Gentleman Farmer (he was promoted that day!). I took along all my latest tastings with very popular feedback. I am sure if I had been selling all my cakes and pies we would have made a bomb! Every event I do I bring along new recipes and tastings, so you can see how versatile baking with our rapeseed is. We love to chat to you all and it is always a pleasure to meet new customers as well as our many loyal supporters who often follow us around to the events we attend. The organisers at Louth are so generous with their help and support for all us stall holders and Louth is such a pretty market town. We are really looking forward to going back there on 7th December for their Christmas Fair.

The following morning we shot down to Birmingham Cathedral to attend the National Harvest Festival. This event is the second organised by Love British Food as part of the British Food Fortnight, whose patron is HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. Primary school children from different parts of the country, as well as local Birmingham school children spend a year growing food in school vegetable patches, make up harvest boxes and bring these to these special harvest festivals as part of the hour long service. The Duchess is so passionate that children should learn about food production in a world where many only see food in supermarkets.

Education is something we are also passionate about and whether taking groups around our farm on our Annual Group Days every July (we only have a few places left for your WI or other group to visit in 2015) or taking part in events organised locally for school children. We believe we should respond to requests for further knowledge about our food production and traceabilty.

The holiday cottage has been fully booked for months and we only have 10 days available for mid-week breaks in December, so if you are planning coming to Lincolnshire and surrounding areas to get those last minute presents, contact us soon!

I am off now to make up some more gift hampers for our forthcoming Christmas events. I'll tell you all about them next time!