Pumpkins down under

[toadspittle]

Are pumpkins a common sight in Australia and South America?

I know a few Australians grow giant pumpkins to try to break world records, but are the normal-sized variety common?

I ask because our (New York-based) magazine will be shooting a story for our October issue in the beginning of April, and we need pumpkins. Few growers still have any in the USA (we've called to Florida and elsewhere), and those that are still around aren't in very good condition.

We might be willing to ship some in from another country... anyone in the Southern Hemisphere think this would be feasible?

[Gaspode]

Yeah I couldn't see any problems with that, plenty of pumpkins grown here in sunny Qld.
Of course unless you need pumpkins on vines I'm sure there would be plenty of pumpkins in cold store in good condition in the US. They keep surprisingly well. You could try contacting your local vegetable wholesaler.
Anyway if you want Australian pumpkins I recommend contacting the Queensland DPI. There's a phone number and link to an on-line request form on this page. You'll probably find some are being exported already.
http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/dpinotes/hortic/vegetable/vegetableframe.html

[pluto]

You might want to be careful to specify exactly what you want. When I lived in NZ (some years ago) they used the word "pumpkin" the way we use the word "squash" -- any viny plant with gourd-like fruit was a pumpkin.

I had an interesting culinary experience there once with someone who wanted to make a genuine American "pumpkin" pie. She had all the spices, etc., right but the plant she started with was no pumpkin. I realize some pumpkin pies are made with a different sort of squash but this was not a valid substitution.