There's a chill in the air, the leaves are changing colour, and your Facebook feed is filled with cute babies sitting on pumpkins – October is here.

But what goes on behind the scenes of the Halloween tradition of picking your own pumpkins? Reporter Cara Simmonds visited one of Kent's biggest suppliers to find out...

Instead of choosing from a small selection in a crate while you do your weekly shop, more and more families are making a day out of going to a farm to pose with pumpkins and, ultimately, pick them.

Pumpkin Moon, in Old Chatham Road, Maidstone, is opening its gates this morning to hundreds of mums, dads and children – all excited to choose their favourite pumpkins.

The company owns three farms across Kent, including one in Rainham and another in Sittingbourne.

Charles Eckley is the man behind it all, and has been planning the month-long event since January.

"We planted everything on May 17, but the pumpkins were actually ready by the beginning of September," he explained.

"They take between 90 and 120 days to grow depending on the variety.

"Here we have 100 different variations – 50% are your traditional orange pumpkins and 50% are squashes and gourds.

"You can go from tiny little munchkin ones, up to a great big monster smash, which could be 40 kilos."

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The 57-year-old says he didn't have much experience of growing plants, or working on a farm, until a few years ago.

He said: "I moved to London when I was 18, and worked in finance and banking for about 30 years until my father became ill.

"My father farmed 1,000 acres of land, so I had to learn fairly quickly about crop rotation and how to grow.

"Looking at the finances and farming as it is, I thought we should diversify a bit. I used to travel a lot to America for my job and I became aware of pumpkin picking.

"I thought the site here was the ideal place to try to grow some pumpkins and see if we could do something in Kent."

In 2016, Charles opened his first Pumpkin Moon site in Maidstone, which is four fields totalling 25 acres.

He added: "The first year I didn’t know what to expect and grew 95% regular orange pumpkins.

"I learnt within two hours of opening that you need more diversification. Each year I expand what we grow depending on customer feedback.

"We have become bigger in size each year – both in visitors and pumpkins!"

Over the coming weeks, his team is expecting to have 25,000 people walking through the gates.

However, it's not just Halloween fans who are eager to pick a pumpkin.

Charles said: "There’s been a lot more interest from foodies, vegans and vegetarians.

"The squash that we grow you just can’t get at a local supermarket. More people are coming to us as a food source."

With the cost of living crisis looming, the director has found that prices are inevitably going up this year.

"My costs have over doubled," he commented. "Fertiliser has trebled in price, with chemicals and diesel doubling too.

"We are trying to keep the pumpkins the same, but we have had to put the ticket price up.

"It's a small increase, but it has been a very expensive year."

He added: "I also got lucky when we planted the 80,000 seeds, as we had about 60 millimetres of rain. This meant most of them germinated and created a good root system.

"Then it didn’t rain for about six weeks. Normally a pumpkin would produce two or three fruit per plant, but because it was so dry, it just concentrates on producing one.

"Some get insect damage and others get eaten by foxes and badgers, but that is expected."

But what happens to all the leftover pumpkins? Luckily, none of it goes to waste.

"We do what is called a 'glean' at the end of the season, where 70 volunteers turn up to collect leftovers," Charles explained.

"One year in particular they collected 42 tonnes of squash. The food goes through a UK distribution service to homeless shelters and food parcels."

This year, there will be plenty of photo props for people to create those much-sought-after images, as well as pumpkin carving displays, face painters and a cafe.

To pre-book your tickets for the event click here.

Pumpkin Moon Maidstone is open every weekend from 10am to 3.30pm, with gates closing at 5pm.