Bright orange, snow-white, dark green or light grey, with warts or without, roundish, elongated, shaped like a UFO or a swan—there are more than 800 pumpkin varieties in the world. Gerd Renner grows 50 of them around Mutterstadt in the Vorderpfalz (the Eastern Palatinate) region, the largest open-air vegetable growing area in Germany.
It is a busy time at the Gemüse Renner company. Pumpkins are being harvested at astonishing rates, cleaned and packed in the fields near Mutterstadt, which are strictly separated by variety. Gerd Renner drives his VW van along softened field paths through mud puddles and potholes on this autumn afternoon. He takes a look at the yield, confers with colleagues and checks conspicuous fruit for viruses or sunburn: “The darker a pumpkin, the easier it can be affected.”
Pre-harvest inspection—Gerd Renner standing in one of his fields near Mutterstadt.
Boxes full of perfect butternut squash are stacked on the trailers. They have to be orangish-brown in colour, feature their typical bottle-shape and must be the size of an A4 sheet of paper. Back on the company premises, bright orange Hokkaidos rush through the bubbling water of a specially built pumpkin washing line before they land in spick and span vegetable crates. Apart from these varieties there are less common ones here, such as Pink Jumbo Banana and Black Forest, as Gerd brought back exotic seeds from a trip to South Africa back in the early 1990s. He has been experimenting ever since.
The pumpkins have illustrious names, such as this Black Forest specimen.
Gerd comes from a family that has been growing vegetables in the Palatinate since the 16th century. But he was one of the first farmers in Germany to grow pumpkins in addition to carrots, potatoes and lettuce. His plan: “I want my image to come to mind when you think of pumpkins.” Gerd has converted machines and has developed and built new ones as well. He is a recognised expert far beyond the borders of Mutterstadt today. And his farm is part of an extensive network of pumpkin farmers around the world. Gerd has leased his business to the next generation within the family. It is now Andreas Renner, who continues the family tradition.
Autumn is harvest time in the Palatinate..
Gerd grows some 50 different pumpkin varieties around Mutterstadt.
Including the popular Hokkaidos, of course.
Every variety has to pass his taste test.
He has exotic varieties in his range, too.
In autumn, he additionally supplies holiday parks and pumpkin exhibitions.
Decorative pumpkins are in great demand around Halloween.
However, Gerd continues to manage the pumpkin section, always assisted by Stefan de Kock. The young, straw-blonde South African is soon to take over the sceptre from Gerd. He too has been passionate about pumpkins ever since he came to the Palatinate nine years ago to visit his family. His mother and grandparents originate from here. “Everything I know about pumpkins, I know from him,” says Stefan, who will soon graduate as a master gardener specialising in vegetable growing.
I’d even sing and dance for them, if necessary.
The two men are together out in the fields during the season from spring to autumn. They pore over colourful seed catalogues and choose spectacularly shaped and colourful varieties to grow on their fields. They take into account climatic conditions as well as market trends. White and grey pumpkins, for example, are currently in great demand as decorative items. “However, consumers tend to be critical of these colours when it comes to eating them.” A prejudice, say the professionals, because the colour has absolutely no influence on the taste.
Half of the pumpkins are grown organically, using plants that have been pre-cultivated. “We can work without the use of insecticides with these ones.” This matters a lot to Gerd because “we need bees for pollination.” He has recently been working on pumpkins that are just the right size for singles. “Pumpkins are usually sold weighing between 0.8 and 1.5 kilos. But that’s too much for one person.” The small, yellow spaghetti pumpkins would actually be the perfect size. “However, these lack the characteristic stripes.” Gerd is therefore planning to grow tiny Hokkaidos. “Just add some sheep’s cheese, pop it in the microwave—out comes a perfect dish in no time at all.”
Small but mighty. Gerd plans to grow Hokkaidos in a one-portion size.
The two pumpkin professionals are particularly enthusiastic about their testing field. “This is our pumpkin wonderland,” says Stefan, pointing to a white and pale grey Sombra variety and to popcorn pumpkins. The new, white coloured variety is perfect for Halloween. The Bischofsmütze (literally bishop’s mitre), on the other hand, proved to be a flop, rotting quickly, while other varieties can actually be stored at room temperature for up to three months. And what about the melons? “We only grew them for fun and for a change.”
Everything is so colourful here! Pumpkins come in all shapes and colours from the fields of the Renner company.
Gerd tastes every variety in a raw state. He is constantly on the lookout for new recipes. And he organises evenings with friends on a regular basis where they experiment with new recipes. Everyone brings a new dish for these occasions. Solid edible pumpkins such as the Mini-Muskat (mini muscat) variety are then made into salads, carpaccio or pumpkin bruschetta. “We had even a pumpkin ice cream once.” All pumpkin varieties are basically edible, provided their bitter substances are removed by cultivation. This is different in decorative pumpkins, where “poisoning is very rare, but they simply don’t taste good.”
Gerd tastes every variety in a raw state.
However, the boundaries are sometimes blurred when it comes to determining what grows for ornamental purposes and what for food. The smallest edible pumpkin, Jack the Little, looks like a perfect mandarin. It is often mistaken for a decorative pumpkin, but tastes wonderfully like marzipan. The largest pumpkin variety, Atlantic Giant, is used for championships. The world record from the US is 1,246 kilos. Gerd’s largest specimen weighed 250 kilos. It was a magnificent pumpkin that ended up advertising the squash range in front of supermarkets.
Heavyweight: Gerd’s largest specimen weighed 250 kilos.
Although Hokkaido and butternut are still the most popular edible pumpkins in Germany, Gerd believes that you shouldn’t limit yourself to these varieties in culinary terms. “Sombra, for example, has an intense chestnut flavour.” Or how about a special soup made from the butternut? It has long replaced the former Saturday’s potato soup in the Renner family home. “We like to make it with vegetable stock, a little cream and curry powder.”
Fancy a tasty pumpkin dish? Here are a few ideas from Gerd’s kitchen, written in German.
Stefan is reminded of his native South Africa by the small, perfectly rounded and richly dark green coloured Gem Squash. He trusts a simple family recipe for preparing it: The squash is cut in half, boiled for around 20 minutes and then eaten with butter and salt or sugar, as preferred. His colleague Olivia Königsmann uses carved pumpkins in her kitchen—the whole fruit. Born in the US, she has lived in the Palatinate for three years. She is in her first year of training as a gardener in vegetable growing. Pumpkins mean a sense of home to her, too. She uses the flesh that she extracts to make pumpkin pie using even the seeds, which are roasted and flavoured.
The Renner business is geared towards large customers such as supermarkets. These have come to offer exotic varieties as well. Gerd grows a range especially for the Holiday Park. However, a farm shop and two self-service fields with a checkout near Mutterstadt also enable direct sales. For all his love of vegetables, Gerd does not like the title of being a pumpkin king. He sees himself more as an expert, even a pioneer. A newspaper once headlined a text about him asking: Do you speak Pumpkin? He still liked that one. After all, Gerd is passionate about creating, caring for, cooking and eating pumpkins. And then he laughs and says: “I’d even sing and dance for them, if necessary.”
Tips for excursions and interesting stories about the Rhine-Neckar region can be found regularly in our newsletter.
And this is how it works: Enter your e-mail address in the field and click subscribe. You will then receive an automatically generated message to the e-mail address you entered, which you only need to confirm. Done!
