Halloween, Coldiretti alarm: “Crazy climate cancels 10% pumpkins”

The crazy climate of 2021 with over 6 extreme events a day between storms and heat waves, hailstorms and drought, cut the first post Covid harvest of Made in Italy pumpkins by 10%, which for variety, quality and versatility are among the best in the world. world. This is what emerges from Coldiretti’s analysis on the occasion of the “Zucca day” which is celebrated throughout Italy in the Campagna Amica markets starting from that of the Circus Maximus in Rome in via San Teodoro 74 with pumpkins carving lessons to prepare for All Saints’ Day, the exhibition of “monstrous” sculptures, but also the advice in the kitchen of the agrichef to prepare them in the best possible way. From the pan to the carving to create the characteristic symbol of the witches, explains Coldiretti, in the week of Halloween there is a race to buy the largest vegetable in the world with the average retail price on the national territory which this year goes from 2.00 to 2.50 euros per kilo. Climate anomalies have reduced the availability of Italian products, Coldiretti notes, especially in the North. First a cold and rainy May, then a summer with heat bubbles and hailstorms hindered the development of the seedlings and the formation of the fruit, even if the quality is fortunately saved. Overall in Italy there are about 2000 hectares cultivated, divided mainly between Lombardy (with about 25% of the national surface), Emilia Romagna and Veneto, followed by Campania, Lazio, Liguria, Sicily and Tuscany. Almost all of these are products intended for food consumption, even if the cultivation of varieties of pumpkins for ornamental or “competition” purposes is growing with specimens that can even reach over a thousand kilos in weight. Alongside international varieties such as the Americana, the Butternut, the Asterix, many agricultural entrepreneurs in Italy – continues Coldiretti – are committed to the conservation of traditional ones such as the Cappello del prete pumpkin, the Berretta Piacentina, the Mini Moscata, the Violina , the Moscata di Provence, the Trombetta and the Delica of which everything is used, from the leaves to the flowers, from the peel to the seeds as well as the pulp of course. This year, Coldiretti continues, the return of festivals and fairs related to pumpkin, canceled or limited last year due to the Covid pandemic, represent the opportunity to buy pumpkins of all sizes and varieties directly from producers, including those not edible for ornamental uses. Coldiretti’s advice is to buy the pumpkins directly in the farmers’ markets of Campagna Amica to ensure a Made in Italy product but also to support the local economy and employment in a difficult time for the country. The law requires that the origin be indicated on fresh whole pumpkins, but not on cut ones, nor on processed ones, nor on classic pumpkin seeds. Thus, Coldiretti warns, the risk of bringing to the table pumpkins from countries where the same rules on the use of pesticides do not apply, as in the case of Egypt and Tunisia, among the main exporters in Italy together with Portugal and South Africa. . In 2020 Italy imported about 12.1 million kilos of pumpkin, up 40% compared to 8.6 million kg in 2019, with consumption on the rise, also dragged down by the lockdown effect, with the increase in home preparations. The undisputed queen of winter tables in the version of the famous tortelli, pumpkin, Coldiretti still states, is one of the most versatile products of Italian cuisine and can be used both for savory and sweet preparations but also combined with pasta, meat, cheeses. and cakes. Over time, two types of use have been mainly differentiated, one relating to the preparation of tortelli, gnocchi, sweets and bread, the other as an ingredient in soups and minestrone. In the first case, the most suitable varieties have very firm, dry and sweet pulp; for other uses, even less sweet pumpkins are fine. The other category of pumpkin that is gaining ground in Italy, Coldiretti finally remembers, is the ornamental one: these are pumpkins of all kinds, which differ in size (small or enormous) in shape (elongated in the shape of a tube, trumpet, hat, flattened, spiral, round), for the skin (wrinkled, lumpy, ribbed, smooth) and for the color (of every shade, from green to bright red, passing through striped pumpkins). But there is no doubt, the association of agricultural entrepreneurs scans, that the emergence of the witches’ night has opened the new ‘market’ of carved pumpkins with which an increasing number of Italians are trying their hand.