Whanganui pumpkin seed growers Summer Hill pull off 8-tonne harvest

Grant and Clare Adkins have dedicated 10ha of their sheep and beef farm to growing pumpkins.

A Whanganui farming couple has found success with a new venture that has nothing to do with sheep or beef.

Clare and Grant Adkins run a 500ha farm at Okoia just out of Whanganui and for the past two years 10ha has been dedicated to growing pumpkins.

The seeds are what they are after, with their second harvest producing 8 tonnes for the Summer Hill Seeds business.

Clare Adkins said they dealt in Austrian naked pumpkins with “super hard shells”.

“You crack them open and boom, these green seeds are just sitting there, ripe for the picking.

“This time around, they kept on giving, so we kept on harvesting. There was a paddock full of golden orbs.”

The couple used to be neighbours of Marton’s Welch family who ran the Cannock Harvest pumpkin seed business.

“They were real trailblazers in this industry,” Adkins said.

“We watched them harvest one day and said we would be keen to contract grow for them but moving machinery around would have been a bit hard.

“About 18 months later, Tom [Welch] came to us and said he wanted to sell. We jumped at the chance.”

Summer Hill Seeds' harvester - "the beast" - in action at Okoia.

The Welchs now run Rangitīkei Signs and Designs.

Adkins said they bought all the equipment - some homemade and some made at the turn of the 19th century.

“It’s a semi-retirement project and, mostly, it fits into the gaps of the sheep and beef season.

“We get lambing and docking out of the way and then planting happens.

“Weeding follows in December, which crosses over with weaning and shearing, but harvest fits in with the slower time on the farm.”

Once the pumpkins are ready, a harvester - “the beast” - is attached to the back of a tractor and the work begins.

Spikes impale the pumpkins before a series of augers and knives slice them up. The seeds are then pushed through a grill.

Only the seeds leave the paddock, with the pumpkin skin and flesh - which are not edible - thrown back out, eventually becoming compost.

Adkins said the end product was greener, bigger and tastier than the pumpkin seeds usually found in supermarkets, which were imported.

“This is a superior product.”

Other than part-time help during harvest, the couple does all the work themselves.

Seconds are turned into oil and flour.

“I would love to find someone to help me with the gravity table - the last part of grading,” Adkins said.

“It’s tilted and shakes and seeds pour in at one end. It’s like trying to pick up jigsaw pieces on a moving table.”

Summer Hill Seeds can be found in Whanganui at The Burrow and Wild Oats, as well as online and through wholesalers.

Adkins said it was important to remain spray-free.

“We are trying to get as much weed out of the paddock by regenerative means.

“It’s definitely a labour-intensive operation but we love what we’re doing.”

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.