Morrisons has said it will stock half a million green pumpkins to early-ripening crops from going to waste on farms in Kent, Norfolk and Lincolnshire.
The retailer said it has stepped in to help growers after lower than normal sunlight hours and cooler temperatures meant crops that were due to ripen in time for Halloween this weekend are about a week away from being ready.
Available in stores from today, Morrisons said it expects customers to “embrace the ghoulish green” colour of the pumpkins, and said that pumpkins are often harvested and eaten at the green skin stage.
The move will ensure growers get paid for their harvest and prevent crops from being ploughed back into the field and wasted, the retailer added.
“We don’t want British farms to suffer because of slightly poorer summer weather conditions,” said Morrisons pumpkin buyer, David Bartle.
“We are also not in the business of wasting good food. We think our customers will embrace the pumpkins’ brilliant skin colour – and that the ‘ghoulish green’ will make an interesting change from norm.”
Stuart Melton, owner of Fairview Nurseries, Cambridgeshire, said cooler weather and lack of sunlight hours has meant that many pumpkins have lain dormant for a little longer this summer.
“But it’s only actually their green skin colour which is different. It’s reassuring to know that customers will be buying our crop - meaning that the hundreds of hours we have spent growing and tending to this crop over the last four months will not be wasted,” he said.
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