Harvest 2023 is complete, a very different harvest to the 2022 harvest but no 2 harvests are the same especially now with the unpredictable weather and seasons that seem to no longer have the weather conditions we would expect.

The word harvest derives from Anglo-Saxon ‘haerfest’ meaning ‘autumn’.

Lincolnshire’s contribution to British Agriculture is significant at approximately 12% with Lincolnshire farmers generating £1.3bn from all the livestock, crops and produce. They farm productively 73% of the land area of the County. Lincolnshire farming and growing directly employs more than 13,500 people. These facts demonstrate the impact and need for agriculture on more than just a food production level.

Grain and Oilseeds

You only have to glance out of your car window as you drive through Lincolnshire to see a rainbow of colours in our fields which represent the wealth the fantastic soils here can grow. From the luminous yellow of oil seed rape to the silvery green of the barley ripening and the blue of linseed and borage, the English countryside would be a barren landscape without farmer’s careful husbandry of the land.

Lincolnshire grows 11% of the country’s wheat – enough to make 2bn loaves of bread per year.

Lincolnshire farmers grow enough barley to make more than 3bn pints of beer per year.

Lincolnshire farmers grow enough oats to make 400m bowls of porridge – enough to feed more than 10m people breakfast every single day for a year.

Claas Combine Harvester in a field with a tractor and trailer at the side of it harvest winter barley

Potatoes

The potato has been a part of the British diet for generations and its popularity continues today with 5.5 billion portions of fresh potatoes and 2.8 billion portions of frozen potato products being eaten last year. Potatoes are the world’s fourth largest food crop, and Lincolnshire is the largest potato producer in the UK.

Vegetables and Salads

Given that 26% of the UK vegetable and leafy salad production comes from our county we have no excuse for not eating the healthy greens put before us! In the South of the county, you can see acres of glasshouses and brassicas which support a huge and diverse population of employees.

We grow vegetables and salad particularly well thanks to our predominantly grade 1 soils and drier East coast climate.

Facts and figures supplied by Rev Canon Alan Robson.

Harvest Festivals

Harvest Festivals are a time to be grateful for the local harvest and all the work that the Lincolnshire Farmers do throughout the year to produce food. The harvest is the culmination of a year’s work and as one harvest is complete, preparation for the next years harvest starts. Harvest is a one part of the cycle of the farmers life.

Image promoting Lincolnshire County Harvest Festival

A Harvest Affirmation

As we celebrate harvest, let us affirm what we believe:

We believe that the earth is the Lord’s and all that lives on it;

we believe that living gratefully and giving generously are marks of faith.

We believe that all humanity should have sufficient food to eat, and that we must all act now to support food producers around the world so that the children of tomorrow may not be burdened by the mistakes of today.

And so, we commit ourselves to think globally, to trade fairly, to live responsibly, to love this world as God loves it, who, in Christ, became part of creation. Amen.

Adapted from Harvesting the World: A Liturgy for harvest festivals Wild Goose Resource Group. From the Arthur Rank Harvest Resources for 2023

What is your favourite harvest hymn?

Is it Autumn Days from when you were at primary school or your children were at school or are you a traditionalist and love to sing We Plough the Fields and Scatter?

Autumn Days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf5AfKdKFp4

Over on our YouTube channel we have created a playlist of harvest songs suggested in the Arthur Rank Harvest Resources for 2023. Is your favourite harvest hymn on the list? You can also watch Rev Cannon Alan Robson’s sermon at the Bakewell Livestock Harvest Festival 2022.

Altar in with fruit and veg in front of it and a harvest loaf on it. Pedestals of yellow and orange flowers in the background. Green Lincolnshire YFC banner on steps leading up to the altar

A Harvest Confession

We say sorry to God for the times

we take our food for granted, waste

God’s precious resource and forget

the poor and hungry.

Lord, in our selfishness we take for

granted plentiful food supplies,

while the poor go hungry day

after day.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, in our carelessness we discard

and waste food,

forgetting those who worked hard to

produce it for little reward.

Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, in our apathy we ignore the

mistreatment and exploitation of

farm workers,

doing little to right the wrongs of

injustice.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

May the God, who has given in

abundance for the benefit of all,

forgive us for our lack of gratitude,

strengthen us in concern and

compassion,

and make us eager to serve him in

the world,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

From the Arthur Rank Centre Harvest Resources 2023

Traditional Harvest Loaf in the shape of a Wheatsheaf

Lincolnshire Harvest Festival

Lincolnshire Harvest Festival is at Lincoln Cathedral on Sunday 22nd October at 3pm. Join us to celebrate and give thanks for the 2023 Harvest and Lincolnshire farmers. Everyone welcome.