John Meaden, 59, is manager of Lotmead Farm Pick Your Own, which is running a programme of special events. John is married to Sue and has three children.

“I’M a manager,” John Meaden said with a cheery smile.

“ I manage to get here first thing in the morning and I manage to get home in the evenings some time or other. That’s a manager’s job, isn’t it?

“Titles don’t matter to me. Down here we all have to work as a team. Without the team, nothing works.”

John has been at Lotmead Farm for 27 years.

For the first 23 he worked mainly at the farm in Stratton Road, Wanborough, itself, occasionally helping out with the pick your own business, but then moved to his current role.

It’s something of a family affair; his wife manages the shop and a son, Ben, is also on John’s team.

John is one of a family of seven children from Frome in Somerset. His father was a farm worker and John never had doubts about his own career.

“I’ve always worked on farms. Farming is a way of life, not a job. When you have to start work at half past four in the morning, and you don’t finish until gone 11 o’clock at night...like I said, it’s a way of life.

“It’s the love of it. You just feel as though you have to do these things. It’s time – you’re always on a time limit with everything. As the saying goes, you can only make hay while the sun shines. It’s no good going to bed and going to sleep and waiting for the rain to ruin your crop. You have to do it.

“I can’t see anybody doing farming as a job.

“I just love being outdoors. I have to be outdoors.”

Before coming to Lotmead, John worked on farms in Shepton Mallett, Bath, Frome and South Glamorgan.

He modestly describes himself as a bodger - “I can do every job, sort of!” – but the operation he runs pulls in about 70,000 visitors a year.

John arrived from a farm in Hannington after deciding it was time to move on. He was invited by owner Norman Parry.

“I came down here for an interview and when I arrived here, I’ll always remember Norman saying, ‘We’ve already got somebody, but do come along and have a chat.’ I came along and had a chat, and the next day the job was mine.

“I’ve always got on ever so well with Norman.”

John tends to regard his boss as more like a colleague who has the final say. The two have mutual respect and John enjoys the work.

“I thrive on responsibility; I thrive on pressure," he said.

“The pick your own hadn’t long been started when I came here. It was about four acres, and it’s now 40 acres.

“People then picked strawberries, raspberries and beans, and that would have been about it. Now we have strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, broad beans, runner beans, potatoes, dwarf French beans, courgettes, carrots, beetroot, sweetcorn and asparagus.

“It’s hard for me to try and think of everything we’ve got going.”

Other attractions include a playground, small animal enclosures, the chance to watch cows being milked and regular special events throughout the season. There is also a lake with a small hide for birdwatchers.

“It’s very good value here,” John said.

“There are not many places you can go to where you can go out with two or three children for three or four hours and it would cost you ten or fifteen pounds. I have the philosophy that when people come in they only have a certain amount of money to spend, and it’s no good trying to rip the public off. This is why we get people here three or four times a week.

“You see the kids wandering around, very interested in what is going on.”

He believes the farm also benefits from renewed environmental consciousness and public interest in where food comes from.

“It’s coming back in. I would have said ten years ago it was dying a bit. People are now back into Fresh fruit and vegetables. Children want to know how food is grown and where it comes from. When I’m digging potatoes the children are absolutely fascinated to follow the machine.

“Nine or ten years ago, during the school holidays at any given time there would have been four or five cars in the car park. Now during the school holidays you’re talking two hundred-plus cars.

“That’s down to value for money, good quality and fantastic fruit.”

Some visitors aren’t quite up to speed on nature-related matters: “We had a lady who went to pick blackcurrants and she said, ‘I’ve never seen such big blackcurrants in my life. That was probably because she’d just picked a punnet of gooseberries.

“There was also a lady with two small children, walking past the turkeys, and the children said, ‘Mummy, Mummy, what’s this?’ She said, ‘It’s a duck – come on...’”

Then there was the visitor who was convinced that milk was clear when it left the cow and wanted to know when the ‘whitener’ was added.

In such cases the visitor is kindly set straight and never made to feel foolish – even if it’s difficult to keep a straight face.

“What you do is explain to them quite quickly, because inside you’re cracking up. And then you have to walk off quickly, put your head round the corner of the hedge and have a good laugh to yourself.”

Information about events at Lotmead can be found at www.lotmead.co.uk and www.facebook.com/lotmeadfarm.