Ripe pumpkins on sale beside stonefruit

Teviot Valley pumpkin grower Darryl Peirce looks over his crown pumpkins, which have ripened a whole month early this year at his Millers Flat farm. Photo / Simon Henderson

First it was strawberries and cherries, then it was grapes.

Now Teviot Valley pumpkin grower Darryl Peirce is reporting his earliest season in 30 years, saying he is "amazed'' by the early ripening of his crown pumpkins.

Mr Peirce, of Peirce Orchard (The Pumpkin Place), at Millers Flat began picking his pumpkins on January 25.

This was the "earliest by four weeks in 30 years,'' he said.

Normally there was a gap of about a month between the end of stonefruit picking and the beginning of apple picking, but Mr Peirce said the pumpkins "just jumped out of season''.

He would never have expected to be selling cherries and pumpkins at the same time, but this year his ripe pumpkins were ready to sell "right on the back of stonefruit''.

Customers were doing "double-takes'' when they saw he had pumpkins for sale this early, Mr Peirce said.

The Otago Daily Times has previously reported Ettrick Gardens owner Heather Preedy saying in November it was the earliest strawberry season on the farm for 37 years.

The cherry season also started and finished about three weeks early, and the Central Otago grape harvest began at Bendigo last week, the earliest harvest in the region since modern harvests began in 1987.

- Simon Henderson