Britons face a Halloween pumpkin shortage after the drought, as one Suffolk farm grew just 50 instead of 10,000

Liz Paterson and Andrew King of Ruffins Farm in Bury St Edmunds had to give their water to 500 breeding ewes instead of their pumpkins. 'The pumpkins just didn't grow this year,' Paterson said. The Met Office declared this the warmest UK summer since records began. Data suggests 2026 could bring the worst pumpkin harvest on record.

Paterson called the drought 'horrendous for us financially but also emotionally'.

Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson asked if it is time to question 'our obsession with giant carving pumpkins'.