Halloween Pumpkin

Halloween and trick or treating is very recent in England. It started to become popular in the 1980s with influence from the USA. And carving pumpkins dates from then as well. And in fact if I had to guess I would say it was well nigh impossible to buy a pumpkin in any shop when I was growing up. Perhaps a farm shop might have them.

When Tamara and I lived in West Sussex in the early two thousands, there was a man who lived in cottage by Slindon Woods. He grew hundreds of pumpkins and was known for miles around. People would come and buy pumpkins, choosing them from the heaps he had stacked in the garden. I know we visited and walked around the rows of pumpkins, and we may have bought one, or even two over the years we lived there.