With the long spells of hot, sunny weather parts of Britain have enjoyed in September, many people have been thankful for an extension to summer.
That is certainly true at David Bowman Pumpkins in Low Fulney where the recent high temperatures have gone some way to salvaging this year’s harvest.
Another 4,000,000 of the fruit will be produced this year but David has warned buyers to expect fewer large ones this year due to a wet start to the growing season.
When drilling is carried out in May and the harvest begins on September 1, every day in between counts.
“It’s not been the best of seasons but we’re pressing on regardless,” said David.
“This year the pumpkins will be a bit smaller than normal, mainly due to the wet weather in June and early July. When you get two inches of rain in a couple of hours with a bit of hail mixed in, it doesn’t go down too well!
“But the Californian weather we’ve had recently has salvaged it.”
Being such a seasonal job, the firm has just two full-time employees currently supported by 70 agency workers (many of whom come back year after year), rising to 200 when the packing gets under way in October.
David turns 69 on October 10 and, with one eye on the future, has this year taken on an operations manager.
As Europe’s biggest pumpkin producer (“nobody else is foolish enough”, says David), the firm has 600 acres to harvest. However, that’s just a tenth of the size of the world’s largest producer in America.
It might come as a surprise after so many years of growing pumpkins that David is still partial to eating them – pies and cakes are his favourite product.
And he’s still as keen as ever to engage with youngsters to promote the fruit and its uses. Each year, in a joint project with South Holland District Council’s community development team, he supplies hundreds of pumpkins to local primary schools for pupils to eat and carve.
David said: “It’s certainly important. You’ve got to connect with the younger generation and they always appear to like getting involved, which is good.”
The showcase for the fruit locally is the council’s annual Spalding Pumpkin Festival, which David’s firm sponsors.
This year’s event takes place on Friday, October 7, with stalls and events around Sheep Market, Hall Place and Market Place and the popular pumpkin parade through town centre streets from 6.30pm.
