Halloween dependent or not, the pumpkin business is booming, according to Steve Winterbottom, sales director of Tozers Seeds, the UK’s biggest independent plant breeder and seedsman.
The company’s catalogue lists no less than 37 varieties, which owe their origin to the US, where Trick or Treat as it is known across the pond is part of the annual fabric, although the celebration can be traced back before the early English settlers*.
“Until the mid 1980s it was unusual to find pumpkins for retail sale in the UK,” says Winterbottom. Production, for what it was worth, lay in the hands of enthusiastic gardeners who cultivated pumpkins for the local horticultural shows and as an offering for the religious Harvest Festival.
There were and are, of course, exceptions.
One specialist who has been growing the crop literally in his walled cottage garden, his greenhouse and a nearby field is Ralph Upton of CR Upton, in the West Sussex village of Slinfold. His endeavours have earned him the nickname amongst locals of ‘Mr Pumpkin’.
For the last 35 years, his roadside displays have been a dazzling mass of shapes and colours. He lists more than 55 varieties and reckons he sows over 15,000 seeds each year.
Apart from travelling customers that this year have included Dutch, Belgian and even Czech tourists, Slinfold sells part of his crop to Kew Gardens for its displays “because they have not got enough room to grow enough of their own”.
But on the commercial front, how things have changed.
A walk round Tozers’ trial plot at this time of year is proof of Winterbottom’s assertion that pumpkins can differ “as much as a colour chart for paint”.
The hues through the leaf cover vary from pale yellow, to a deep burnt-amber, via luminous orange. Perhaps most surprising are the range of white varieties, which this year includes a new arrival called Full Moon.
“Size can range from a few ounces for mini fruit, such as Wee Be Little and Munchkin, which can fit into a teacup and fulfil the function of table decorations, to giant sizes, like the appropriately named Sumo, which almost needs a forklift to lift it,” says Winterbottom.
The most popular lines though, weigh between two and 10 kilos and carry evocative names such as Pik-a-Pie, Jack O’Lantern and Ghostrider.
Shapes can be round, or conical, smooth or ribbed. The variations seem endless, although the jury is still out on what constitutes the ideal pumpkin shape.
Peter and Jon Barfoot of Barfoots of Botley, near Chichester, which supplies several leading multiples including Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, favour the orange variety with leathery ribs - the true Cinderella shape.
Uniformity of size is something which is increasingly important, and dictated by open-field pollination. “If you can get consistent size you can sell the field twice over,” adds Nathan Dellacot, Barfoot’s technical director.
The climate on England’s south coast is ideal, he says, as it allows pumpkins to naturally cure in the field. “They turn orange and cure with the warmth. In other parts of the country, they have to store fruit to get the same results.”
Although the decorative attributes of the product are still proiminent on the sales ledger, the demand for the most edible types of the fruit is also growing, according to Mike Smales, managing partner at PD Smales and Son at Landford, near Salisbury.
The company is unique in so much as it has its own brand - Lyburn - that is also used for its local cheese. No problem dealing with waste here, as the company’s cows regard rotting pumpkin fodder as a luxury.
Smales began growing pumpkins 20 years ago, and has now developed an organic range concentrating on smaller culinary varieties such as Becky, weighing in at 3-5lbs. Business is good, and plans are in place to expand the 35 acres of pumpkins by a further 20 acres next year.
“Growing organic pumpkins means we have to sow later, as a way of combating slug damage and we have to watch weed control,” he explains.
In general pumpkins are grown like any commercial crop, with the utmost care and attention to detail. After germination from seed, outdoor planting takes place in May, and if the weather is suitable the crops begins to swell.
If the weather holds, harvesting takes place in September, after the pumpkin has naturally cured. As mentioned earlier in this article, in some cases, the process is completed by storing fruit in dry conditions.
Throughout the summer a close watch has to be kept for powdery mildew, which if it takes hold will cause the green stem - or handle as it is known in the industry - to rot and the fruit to collapse.
Some growers have moved on a level from being specialists, to produce on a massive scale, particularly those in the eastern part of the country.
Examples are David Bowman, with 300 acres in Spalding, who began growing in 1998, and Oakley Farms, in Outwell near Wisbech, which planted its first seeds some eight years earlier. Both farms harvest mechanically using machines developed by Bowman, with the pumpkins being washed in the field before they are cured.
Somewhat surprisingly David Bowman reveals that such operations even dwarf their US equivalents, which were the initial beneficiaries of the Halloween craze. Visiting American growers have told him that while everyone grows pumpkins it is not on such industrial scale.
“Over the five weeks in September and October our rigs employ 14 men, we need 13, 180 HP tractors and 12,000 wooden bins,” Bowman says.
“Its certainly not a cheap crop [to produce],” adds Steve Whitworth, sales manager for Oakley Farms. “There is so much labour involved, not just in harvesting, but repacking. Then there are the escalating fuel costs.”
Apart from supplying Tesco, and indirectly other UK retail chains, Oakley Farms has also built up an export business. “We send to Eire, and US Airforce bases in Europe,” he reveals.
Oakley Farms favours medium-sized Mars and Harvest Moon, while for big displays there is Aspen. Bowman’s also favours Harvest Moon and Ghostrider and is trialing at least half-a-dozen alternatives every year.
However, most growers agree that real UK growth in the last seven years has been through the most edible varieties such as Becky and Small Sugar.
The reason, which we will see in-store once more this year as the end of October draws near, is because pumpkins have been “discovered” by the major supermarkets.
“Halloween has become its own sort of English festival,” says Jon Barfoot. “It’s an excuse for a party and even become integrated with Guy Fawkes Night. You can even buy special greeting cards.”
As well as adorning these cards, pumpkins join witches’ hats, broomsticks and bats in special centre-piece displays in fresh produce departments and store foyers.
Apart from simply merchandising the fruit itself, the multiples and their suppliers are adding value to a price ticket of around £2 for a medium-sized sample by selling the product boxed complete with stencils and carving tools. One of the latest moves is to import ready-painted products from the United States.
And there are signs that competition is as fierce as ever.
With displays appearing this week, a spokesman for Asda claimed it would have the largest range of memorabilia on the High Street.
John Maylam, senior produce buyer for Sainsbury’s, promised even larger displays from October 12 than last year.
“It’s an opportunity for real theatre,” he says. “The kids love it.”
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*While Halloween is associated with All Hallows Eve, prior to All Saints’ Day, its origins can be traced back to the Celtic festival of Samhain marking the end of summer.
Bonfires were lit on hillsides so hearth fires could be relit as winter approached. But it was also linked to the time when the souls of those who had died returned to their homes.
To frighten off evil spirits, which included witches, hobgoblins, fairies and demons, masks were worn.
When Britain was conquered by the Romans, the season coincided with their period for divination concerning birth, marriage and death so they added their own interpretation
The festival was carried to the US by Irish colonists a thousand plus years later, although up to 1880 it was banished to the underground on religious grounds. However by the start of the 20th century, it had developed into a modern celebration still using Jack O’Lanterns or pumpkins. Trick or Treat evolved from the custom of giving food to the poor on All Saints’ Day.
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