It has been hailed as the Great British Pumpkin Shortage. Heavy rain in August cut pumpkin yields in half for Barfoots, one of Britain’s biggest pumpkin suppliers. Another grower in Kent reports a 10% fall.
October is the cruellest month for pumpkin growers. “If only Halloween was six weeks earlier … they are ticking timebombs,” grower Jon Barfoot told a produce industry website. I’m not being smug but this alleged crisis won’t be felt in our household, thanks to my dad growing us an “atlantic giant” pumpkin, which feels as heavy as the combined weight of our three-year-old twins.
The supposed shortage – and 30% price increase – isn’t apparent in our local supermarket in Norfolk either, where pumpkins adorn the aisles.
But pumpkin grower and chair of the horticulture board of the National Farmers’ Union Guy Poskitt says there’s “definitely” a national shortage. A shortage of late-summer sunshine over his farm near Selby, North Yorkshire, stopped many of Poskitt’s pumpkins from ripening.
“Trying to grow tropical plants in a temperate climate is a challenge,” says Poskitt. “One of the fundamental problems is nature ripens something when it’s ready and Halloween comes on time.”
If you’re at the sharp end of the shortage, English Heritage recommends the old ways: traditionally, turnips were carved into scary faces and placed near doorways to frighten away evil spirits. A folk tale about Jack, cursed to roam the earth with only a burning coal inside a hollowed-out turnip to light the way, is the origin of the Jack-o’-lantern.
If you’re a convert to the American preference for a pumpkin, you could try growing your own. I call my dad for advice. He plants atlantic giant for size, unlike commercial growers, who prefer harvest moon or racer varieties, which aren’t so large or liable to collapse. Dad grows his pumpkins from seed in the greenhouse and hardens them in a cold frame. He plants them out late (late May) and harvests early (September), leaving them outside for two weeks (“in the sun” – as if!) to harden.
Poskitt says that farmers like him probably won’t risk growing larger quantities of pumpkins. “It’s too much risk,” he says. He prefers carrots: “They don’t devalue overnight, like pumpkins.”
Pumpkins are the gamblers’ vegetable, as demonstrated by Homer Simpson’s not-so-sage advice: “This year, I invested in pumpkins. They’ve been going up the whole month of October and I got a feeling they’re going to peak right around January. Then, bang! That’s when I’ll cash in.”
