Many MPs on Wednesday had stalks of wheat pinned to their suit lapels and dresses in honour of the annual Back British Farming campaign.
That prompted a slightly strained jibe from Rishi Sunak to Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Conservative leader (for now) quipped that Sir Keir’s support for UK farmers was appropriate “given the PM’s newfound preference for landscapes over portraiture”.
He was referring to a rather confected summer row over the positioning of a portrait of Margaret Thatcher in No10.
Interviewed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Keir said he had asked for the painting’s removal from his Downing Street study because he doesn't like "pictures of people staring down at me", and prefers landscapes.
The PM retorted to Mr Sunak that Labour had more rural MPs than ever, thanks to the Tories’ election implosion which thrust him into No10 in July.
This was only the second PMQs since the post-election summer break, and the last before the Commons pauses on Thursday for another month, for the annual party conference season.
Sir Keir will have to confront restive Labour members in Liverpool after contentious Commons votes over child benefit and winter fuel support for pensioners.
Mr Sunak will be winding down his leadership at the Tories’ conference in Birmingham, when the four remaining candidates vying to replace him will set out their stall to the dwindling party faithful.
Before then, Sir Keir heads off this week to Washington for a summit with Joe Biden, who is still the US president despite all the attention on the race to succeed him. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump fought it out in a gripping TV debate on Tuesday night.
PMQs in contrast was more staid, with Mr Sunak demanding the Government publish its economic impact study over the means-testing of winter payments to pensioners - the only demographic group to stick by the Tories in July.
For the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey asked his question on the back of a video by the Princess of Wales about her emergence from chemotherapy, showing Kate, William and their children wandering through a wheat field among other scenes.
The Lib Dem leader then followed up by asking about the change to winter fuel support.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage noted the early release of some 1,700 prisoners on Tuesday. Some of them were seen popping champagne corks, drawing uncomfortable headlines for the PM on the same day of the winter fuel vote.
The prisoners were making way for rioters but also some people convicted of saying “unpleasant things” on social media, Mr Farage said, drawing Labour jeers after a summer of Far-right unrest stoked by debatable rhetoric from some politicians.
Sir Keir ignored the claim that he was presiding over a “two-tier” justice system and went on the attack against Mr Sunak.
With a flash of anger, the PM stressed he was forced to act because “the last government broke the prison system”, when his predecessor allegedly failed to act on police and ministerial warnings that prison capacity was at breaking point.
Mr Sunak smiled, but it looked rather strained, and he may be forgiven for turning his thoughts to a California break once his successor can take over the plough and start cultivating a new direction for the Conservatives from November.
On the Opposition leaders’ questions about cutting support for pensioners, which prompted a Labour rebellion on Tuesday, Sir Keir kept stressing the “£22 billion black hole” he says the Government inherited from the Tories.
Labour will be hoping they can continue tilling that field of argument for months, even years, to come.
