BLENHEIM - Gordon Herkt has a colourful job - he is growing 60,000 fat pumpkins under contract in his Blenheim backyard.
Mr Herkt's 4ha of pumpkins is part of a major crop growing on 142ha throughout Marlborough for local farmer Garth Neal, who services the US market.
But the Americans are not
buying them to make pumpkin pie. It is the dried seeds they want and they cannot get enough of them, says Mr Neal, who has boosted production more than 40 per cent this year.
The seeds are harvested and dried here before 70 tonnes of them are exported to the US, where they are roasted and salted, ready for eating. Mr Neal says although the type of pumpkin he grows is commonly used in the US for cooking, New Zealanders do not eat it so only the seeds are harvested.
The pumpkin seed habit has yet to catch on here, but Mr Neal has been exporting the seeds for 11 years. The picked pumpkins are left to dry before harvesting mach-ines crush them to get the seeds.
