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Royal approval: the Duchess of Cornwall launches the Bring the Harvest Home Lottery for schools (Pic: Ian Jones)

Bring Home the Harvest competition entries, meanwhile, have been coming in from all over the country.

The bumper apple harvest was celebrated at the very first Otterbourne Primary School Autumn Festival in Hampshire, with an apple press providing fresh juice, a Scarecrow fancy dress parade and church service. "Saturday's event was very special - it had a very village feel to it, traditional and family-focused," said Alison Langrish, the school's head teacher.

Nineteen London community gardens and city farms, meanwhile, joined forces at Capel Manor College this year to host the City Harvest festival. There were "greens, gherkins, goats and guinea pigs galore" as vegetable carving competitions jostled with animal shows, enjoyed by 2,000 visitors.

At Burnham on Sea in Somerset, over 5,000 people attended the Food and Drink festival. The town centre burst with 80 stallholders offering everything from award winning pork pies to bison burgers, vintage-themed cup-cakes to towering stacks of vegetables. A large crowd gathered to watch the first Great Burnham Burn Off chilli eating competition - the winner eating 12 rounds of chilli, of increasing heat.

If your local harvest festival brought the community together, please nominate it for consideration before the 10 October deadline. Judging takes place next week, with the winner being decided by a panel comprised of chef and presenter Raymond Blanc, presenter Alan Titchmarsh, gardener, food writer and author Sarah Raven, Secretary of State for Defra Owen Paterson, CEO of Tesco Philip Clarke, Love British Food's Alexia Robinson and Telegraph Life editor Anne Cuthbertson.