National Trust Farm Produce Awards

Sorry for the long gap between posts. It has been a very busy Summer I am pleased to say.

The above pictures are a sample from a series of assignments for the National Trust. Every year they have a food competition open to all their tennant farmers. It is called the Fine Farm Produce Awards.

The farmers enter anything that has been produced on Trust land. Ranging from Beer, sparkling wine ,to lamb chops or flour. Over the last 10 years I have photographed most of the people involved and their products. So each year, my shoot lists get smaller, as I only need to visit new entrants. This year I had two beef farmers and a cider maker. As we all know the Summer has been so dry , the farm land was looking very parched, which made photography quite hard. An unusual situation to be in for our fair land. As usual with the National Trust the people were lovely and the locations stunning. The cows on the first shoot however were not playing ball. They just wanted to stay in the shade and we spent a long hour chasing them round the hedges trying to coax them out. Sadly to no avail. Which just left us very hot and frustrated. Then  the next day with a different herd but same conditions the cows were more than happy to join us. In fact were a little to close for comfort at times.

Whenever I visit the National Trust farmers I am encouraged by how young the farmers are and the real passion they have for the land. And the fact that they have been entrusted to maintain these areas of outstanding beauty for future generations to come.