RUMWELL Farm Shop baker Roxy Orton grew a massive pumpkin to coin in the cash for an equine charity

Her huge fruit, grown on her family’s allotment, went on show at the shop for customers to guess its weight with donations to the Conquest Centre.

Farm shop joint owner Anne Mitchell said: “It was a wonderful idea of Roxy’s to bring the pumpkin in for us to display for visitors to see in the run up to Hallowe’en. It was quite an attraction in the shop.

“We asked anyone who wanted to have a guess at the weight of the fruit to make a 50p cash donation at our tills. The £60 we collected we will now pass on to our charity of the year, Conquest Centre.

“We’ve been raising money for the organisation, which provides therapeutic support to people with physical and behavioural or emotional needs, involving equines, small animals and the environment, all year through fundraisers and we’ll donate all the money we’ve raised in January.”

The correct weight was 54.3kg and the nearest guessers won 12 doughnuts made by Roxy and the farm shop Bakery team.

The winners were ten-year-old Owen, four-year-old Rhys and eight-year-old Mia Hatcher from Norton Fitzwarren, and twins Dylan and Poppy Phillips, aged nine, from Taunton.

Roxy, from Wiveliscombe, said: “My family and I have a few allotments and we’re really keen gardeners and enjoy growing our own fruit and veg. We grow so much that I often bring in our surplus produce for the farm shop to sell. For example, customers will have eaten some of our runner beans this summer. Our produce is seasonal, fresh and local. There are very few food miles involved.

“We like to grow things organically. With the pumpkin, we gave it plenty of water and lots of encouragement. Like all plants, it benefited from our TLC, and we often chatted to it as it grew. We used our own fertiliser too, but I can’t reveal our secret recipe!”

The pumpkin was on show at the farm shop until October 29 for visitors to have a guess at its weight. Once the winners were drawn, the pumpkin was carved by farm shop general manager Chris O’Connor and displayed for the Café’s Hallowe’en Tea on October 31.