FARMER Jim Hooper is standing in a muddy field harvesting a fresh crop of vegetables on a chilly winter’s day.

“I’m living the dream,” he says, without a hint of irony.

“I love what I do. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

Farming is in Jim’s blood. He is the third generation of his family to work at Berry Hill Farm at Throop on the outskirts of Bournemouth.

His grandparents started with chickens on a couple of acres in 1938, and by 1940 they were also growing cabbages and rearing pigs as part of the war effort.

Jim’s grandfather used to deliver his produce by horse and cart to wholesalers in Bournemouth. They carried on until they were in their late 90s.

“I guess I won’t be retiring any time soon either,” laughs Jim.

But it has been tough to keep the business going in recent years, and now Jim is looking to develop his vegetable box delivery scheme.

“I am having to grow a much bigger variety of vegetables now, which is a challenge because each variety is at risk of different diseases. But it keeps the job interesting!”

He currently delivers around 70 boxes a week of seasonal produce ranging from potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, leeks, swede and parsnips to purple sprouting broccoli, celeriac, runner beans, broad beans, marrows, beetroot and kale.

But he is hoping to increase output to around 200 boxes per week and has plans to include fruits later in the year.

“Unlike some other vegetable delivery box schemes, all our produce is fresh and harvested that day – it’s literally just a few hours old by the time it’s delivered and everything is grown using traditional farming methods.”

His best-sellers include his cauliflowers of which he has 17 different varieties.

“I want to keep the family business alive and the veg boxes are more popular now because people like to know where their food comes from – they care about their carbon footprint.”