The first Sunday of June marks a national event called Open Farm Sunday, organised by LEAF (Linking the Environment And Farming) where participating farms open their gates to show visitors around.
Families and friends came to Open Farm Sunday at Tiptree to learn about how we farm and thankfully the weather stayed dry.
The farm tractor with trailer and Lodge’s historic coaches proved the most popular events with guests taking a ride across the farm. The guides talked about the history of the company and pointed out the different crops as they passed the tunnels of juicy strawberries, the rhubarb field and the orchard of cherries.
“We are grateful to everyone who supported Open Farm Sunday, this is a great opportunity to share our knowledge as farmers and it gives people an opportunity to taste the different varieties of strawberries that are grown on the farm”, said Andrey Ivanov, Farm Director.
Visitors learnt about the future of strawberry picking from the robotics team at the University of Essex; they talked to the tractor driver about the ancient crop sprayer, tasted jams and gin and admired the work of the Essex Knitters.
The North Essex Astrological Society encouraged people to discover more about the sky at night while others found a different ‘meteor’ – the name for the latest strawberry growing system on the farm.
