A catapult, 6,000 pumpkins to pick from and hundreds of people – what could possibly go wrong?

Ipswich Star: Liam, four, and Jake Petty, five, bounce around at Alder Carr Farm's Punkin Chunkin event, which ran all week.Liam, four, and Jake Petty, five, bounce around at Alder Carr Farm's Punkin Chunkin event, which ran all week.

Nothing much, as the first day of “punkin chunkin” was a resounding success at Alder Carr Farm, near Needham Market.

The American-inspired activity involves throwing the autumnal fruit via a trebuchet.

By noon, 380 people had come to see what it was all about and have a go at launching the pumpkins onto the 60-metre long landing strip.

Barry Sheldrake, one of the owners of Alder Carr Farm, said: “It was fantastic; we had lots of people here, probably more than we expected – it’s gone really well.

“I was at a conference in Virginia, America, when I was told about it. It’s known as punkin chunkin there and I thought I would build a catapult here.”

The wooden contraption took two weeks to build and takes four minutes to reload. Thanks to the warm weather, the farm had a bumper haul of pumpkins – with 6,000 harvested. Out of those, the poorest ones are used for the trebuchet.

Entry to the farm’s The Pumpkin Patch, which also includes the spooky Maize Maze and the Haunted House, costs £4.50 each with under twos free of charge.

The event is running until Saturday.

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