Mr. Pumpkin

Halloween is wholesaler’s favorite time of year

KAPAA — It’s like Christmas for Earl Kashiwagi, only better.

Instead of presents under the tree, the gifts are pumpkins — better than any stocking stuffer.

Fall is Earl Kashiwagi’s favorite time of year.

And Monday was a fine day to kick off the season — Halloween with Thanksgiving right behind it — at Kashiwagi’s store, Esaki’s Produce in Kapaa.

“The sun is shining, there is no rain, and this farmer from Kapahi just brought a big load of pumpkins,” Kashiwagi said, looking over his massive supply of the orange, round vegetables. “He said the pumpkins are so big, he had a hard time getting them into tubs.”

But that did not matter as Kashiwagi had the staff help unload the icons of Halloween, spreading the golden spheres around the entrance to his wholesale facility.

For two years now, Kashiwagi has distributed pumpkins to anyone looking to turn their homes or storefronts into a decorative autumn display.

And on Saturday, he’s putting on his own display at his store to showcase what can be done with the something as simple as pumpkins.

“If you don’t have a Halloween display, it’s like having no Christmas tree during the holidays,” Kashiwagi said. “We’ll have something for everyone.”

Fall displays are common on the Mainland, Kashiwagi noted. Perhaps because more Mainland states have typical fall, chilly weather. But Hawaii celebrates the turn of the season too, and his display will feature a petting zoo, lunch wagons and, pumpkins, of course.

The ‘Fall Festivities’ will run from 4 to 7 p.m.

So how much is a lot when it comes to pumpkin harvests?

Well, Kashiwagi, who sells pumpkins at wholesale prices, said the Kapahi farmer’s load for this year came in around 10,000 pounds, including a mixture of different types of pumpkins. Last year, the first year he tried growing pumpkins, he had between 4,000 and 6,000 pounds, but lost more than half the crop when the rains came.

This year promises to be better.

Wendy Kawaguchi, of Sueoka Store in Koloa, is one shop owner thinking of putting out an autumn display.

She’s unsure if she’ll go all out for the decoration at her store, but ordered pumpkins, which arrived Tuesday, for the nearby school’s carving night.

“We just got our small shipment of pumpkins,” Kawaguchi said, adding that Kashiwagi offered to sweeten the pot if she’d decorate. “The Koloa Elementary School has its pumpkin carving night and parents come in to get the small pumpkins for their children. But Earl said he would even send us a 100-pound pumpkin if we made a display.”

She said the store’s staff would do a really good job with the display, but admitted  security could be a concern if kids wanted to make off with a pumpkin as an early ‘trick’ for the season.

“If people can steal ATM machines, imagine what would happen to the pumpkins,” she said. “It would be nice, though.”

Kashiwagi said Halloween marks the start of their holiday season, Thanksgiving following less than a month after Halloween, with Christmas and New Year’s coming less than two months after Halloween.

“We usually sell out at Halloween, but if we don’t, we can always use the pumpkins, dried corn and squashes for Thanksgiving,” Kashiwagi said. “All of the pumpkins are edible, but people prefer the sweeter varieties like Big Max.”

Now, a lot of people may think pumpkins are good for  Jack-O-Lanterns and pie.

But there’s more to them.

Mini pumpkins are popular among the restaurants that create pumpkin soup and serve it in the mini pumpkin bowls, he said, and one of the most unique pumpkins out there is the Knucklehead. It has its own warts and out-side-the-box artists snap them up so they can carve some amazing decorative pieces.

Don’t forget eating. The mini pumpkins lose some of the taste, leaning more toward something like a sweet potato.

And the wholesaler sells them all, for any reason. Everything comes together for the Fall Festival, Kashiwagi said.

This is the first time Kashiwagi is opening up the produce wholesaler for the Fall Festivities, inspired in part by Thipphawan “Preaw” Meephol, originally from Thailand, who started working last year.

“They never have celebrations like Halloween,” Kashiwagi said. “Until they came to work here, they never realized how people get into the mood.”