'We're sorting veg 24/7 for your Christmas dinner'
BBCA family-run carrot farm is working around the clock, harvesting 150 tonnes of carrots, seven days a week, to ensure the much-loved vegetable reaches dinner tables in time for Christmas Day.
Poskitts, in Kellington, North Yorkshire, is aiming to supply one million bags of carrots for supermarkets across the country this Christmas.
Director Ben Poskitt, 24, said: "Any farmer who tells you they grow perfect veg is a liar. We pride ourselves by having as little food waste as possible."
Although most of the Christmas batch is deemed perfect, farmers often face crops growing larger, smaller and a bit wonkier than expected - with this year's drought not helping.
Seeds for the Christmas crop were planted in April, and from then until December farmers have been under pressure to grow the best carrots in time for the big day.
"It's very, very challenging to get the crop ready for the right time and get it to the right size," said Mr Poskitt.
This year's extreme weather added further stress.
Mr Poskitt added: "We've had a serious drought this year, so they've had six or seven passes of irrigation over the top of them, so they've been quite a costly crop to grow.
"Both us and the carrots were under a lot of stress in the summer."
In the run up to Christmas, Mr Poskitt explained carrot sales increase fourfold, while the sale of parsnips also grown and processed by the company, which has farms across Yorkshire, increase tenfold.
Only carrots of the perfect size, weight and shape end up in bags in the supermarket, but the wonky ones do not go to waste.
Mr Poskitt said: "We've got nearly 100 customers, ranging from retail to the dog food factory."
Some of the larger carrots are chopped into batons and also sold in supermarkets.
In the on-site factory, a computer is used to grade about 46ft (14m) of carrots per second.
Mr Poskitt said: "The cameras make decisions based on quality, size and any defects on the carrots. This grades them for us so we can put them into boxes and bag them accordingly."
After being cleaned, packed and loaded on to lorries, the carrots will make their way from the Yorkshire fields to the supermarkets and ultimately to a festive dinner plate.
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