Seasons Out of Sync: Cheddar’s Pumpkins Tell Climate Story - BBC Breakfast

Admin
Aug 30
2 min read

Today we were deployed to Cheddar in Somerset for BBC Breakfast.

Pumpkins around the UK are ready long before the leaves have even thought of turning. Under a relentless sun and dry skies, this year’s harvest has arrived not with the crispness of autumn but with the haze of August heat—a vivid sign that the seasons are slipping out of sync.

Josh Warren who runs Warren's Farm Shop has a whole crop ready before they should be.

We filmed with him and his daughter Faye.

Farmers like Josh usually expect a slow ripening process leading up to October, now find themselves surrounded by fully orange pumpkins weeks ahead of schedule. The fields, once lush with trailing green vines, are dry and cracked, their thirst unquenched by a summer that offered little rain.

Cheddar is famous for its cheese and dramatic gorge, but it’s also part of the UK’s agricultural heartland. This summer, its parched pumpkin fields provide a small but telling snapshot of a much larger problem: a warming world where predictable seasons are becoming a relic of the past.

If Cheddar’s fields are a glimpse of the future, they’re also a call to action. We can all play a part—whether by supporting sustainable farming practices, reducing our own carbon footprint, or pressing for stronger climate policies.

Because one thing is certain: when pumpkins start turning orange months ahead of schedule, the seasons themselves are telling us a story. The question is whether we’ll listen.

You can see the broadcast below.