Outwell firm enjoys bumper season for pumpkins

A Fenland pumpkin growing farm planted nearly 20 per cent more culinary pumpkins this year to meet demand for vegetarian food.
Oakley Farms, in Outwell, is one of the UK’s largest suppliers of pumpkins, growing about five million each year, ready for Halloween.

Traditionally the orange-coloured fruit is bought for carving in the run-up to last week’s annual Halloween celebrations.

But this year has seen a rise in demand of edible/cooking pumpkins with Tesco, one of the company’s supplied by Oakley, reporting selling nearly twice as many culinary pumpkins in the three weeks before Halloween this year than in 2018.

Steve Whitworth of Oakley Farms said: “We actually planted about 20 per cent more culinary pumpkins this year as we anticipated that demand might be up because of the plant-based food revolution.”