The hectic time of year has arrived throughout Gloucestershire and The Cotswolds, the great September harvest, which also leads into October, where months of costly and hard labour are harvested, with all kinds of grains being ripped up, stacked up and wrapped up, ready to be made into ingredients for foods throughout the country.
With an enormous part of Gloucestershire being farmland, the September harvest is a short window of heightened and heavy activity across throughout the countryside roads, where all kinds of tractors and harvesters take priority, so leaving a little extra time to reach your destination is advised.
GFirst LEP reports that the Gloucestershire Agrifood supply chain, employs over a whopping 50,000 people, where Gloucestershire agriculture directly supports 6,280 jobs, which covers 193,000 hectares of farmland throughout the county.
The September harvest is just yet another one of many picturesque times for Gloucestershire and The Cotswolds, which home buyers seeking a more relaxing, healthy lifestyle in the countryside will love. For keen eyes, leading up to and during the harvest is just as significant as the changing of seasons, where there seems to be endless opportunity to capture almost endless, unique landscape and nature images.
Personally, I love this time of year in Gloucestershire.
Not just for being a keen hobbyist nature photographer, but because as the harvest takes place, the dramatic change of the landscape is the first sign that Autumn is arriving, my favourite season, where the countryside turns from lush greens, to oranges, yellows and rich reds, where you can enjoy golden sunlight walks with friends and family in the crisp air, whilst wrapped up warm in your thickest coat.
The harvest is a sign of life slowing a little, where gin or cider in the garden sunshine, is replaced with hot chocolates, mulled wines or bourbon by the fireplace. From this moment onward, as each week passes, life across Gloucestershire and The Cotswolds becomes a little more cosy.