Farmers sound alarm over pumpkin sales

pumpkins are more generally for decoration at home.

“It gives kids something to do and they make lanterns. Only about 25 per cent are for food.”

Having planted his pumpkins in May, John added: “It’s a big part of the year and we work hard towards Halloween.

“I don’t see why it should be an issue but it’s down to her policies.”

The First Minister last week reintroduced restrictions on visiting other households in Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire – affecting about 800,000 people – following a spike in coronavirus cases.

It came weeks after Aberdeen was also put into a mini-lockdown after a rise in Covid-19 patients.

Sturgeon has warned the

Scottish Government is ready to make further clampdowns if infections continue to increase.

Lucy Calder, of Kilduff Farm in north Berwick, and her husband Russell began planting pumpkins as a child-friendly way to introduce their children to farming.

Maisie, 11, Louisa, nine, and Charlie, four, help with sowing seeds and distribution.

But their efforts could come to nothing if lockdown is reintroduced due to recent spikes in virus cases.

Lucy said: “It’s a worry. We started farming pumpkins four years ago and this will be our third year of opening for the public to pick pumpkins.

“Pumpkins are planted in April, so we had to make a call at that stage on whether to completely cancel or plant the pumpkins early doors.

“Last year, we had around 7000 people visiting us over six days of pumpkin picking.

“It is a worry that our picking sessions will be cancelled when they’ve had more interest and grown bigger and quicker than we thought. It’s a scary thought.”

Hal loween has grown in popularity in Scotland in recent years thanks to commercialisation.

Last year, it generated £ 431million in sales.

It was best known as an American tradition but is now the third most lucrative festival after Christmas and Easter in the

UK. Shops have already starting stocking shelves with Halloweenbranded products including family-sized packs of sweets.

Households decorate their property with carved pumpkins – known as jack-o’-lanterns – to let chi ldren know they are welcome to chap the door when trick- or-treating.

Dad- of- two, John Sinclair is the fourth generation of his family to tenant Craigies Farm in Edinburgh, starting with his great-grandfather in 1880.

The 52-year-old, who has been growing pumpkins for 10 years, said: “To start with, we had 1000 pumpkins and over the last three or four years, we’ve increased to