King of the squash delighted with bumper halloween harvest

Halloween has provided all treats and no tricks for Kimberley pumpkin farmer Russell Rusty Dredge after producing a bumper harvest this year.

Mr Dredge has been growing carving pumpkins from Ginmore Farms near Broome for the past seven years.

He estimated between 10,000 and 15,000 pumpkins from his farm will be carved up into jack-o-lanterns for the spooky celebration on October 31.

The large orange medicine ball-like pumpkins are mainly destined for supermarket shelves across WA.

“It has been a pretty harvest this and our biggest since we started growing them seven years ago,” he said.

“The demand for halloween pumpkins is going up so we are all pretty happy.”

Mr Dredge said almost all of his harvest had now arrived in Perth.

When he first started growing halloween pumpkins, the market requirement was only about 20 to 30 tonnes but his luck has taken a turn for the better.

“We have probably sent down more than 100 tonnes (to Perth) so we will just wait and see how the demand pans out,” he said.

“Having said that, it’s all looking pretty good from our end. Halloween seems increasing in interest and the kids just love it.”

Mr Dredge also grows asparagus, watermelons, and butternut, JAP and grey pumpkins.