They're knobbly, distinctive and grown in Richmond, and a company working on The Hobbit reckons they will look the part on the shire in Hobbiton.

Eyebright co-owner Peter Owen said a Miramar-based film company 3 Foot 7, working on the Peter Jackson-directed movie The Hobbit, had approached his Richmond company and asked if they had any pumpkins.

Mr Owen said Eyebright showed them the gourds and Turk's Turbans they grew and they loved them, ordering 10 of each.

He said they first started supplying items to the film company three years ago, when it approached them and asked if they had any spent corn stalks for a movie. Eyebright did have some and since then the company has supplied the company with a lot of different items.

The main item it had supplied was artificial flowers and foliage.

Mr Owen said Turk's Turbans were a pumpkin variety, that were edible but had a tough skin.

He said it was a real buzz to be able to supply something for the movie, and he would definitely be watching hard to see if he could catch a glimpse of his gourds or Turk's Turbans in the movie when it came out. "I'm hoping for a credit," he laughed.

Several scenes in The Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed in the Nelson area.

However, a spokeswoman for The Hobbit said it was too early to know whether The Hobbit would film in the area. Locations for the film had not been chosen, and any shooting was likely to be months away. Just because The Lord of the Rings had filmed scenes in Nelson didn't guarantee The Hobbit would come back here as it was set in different parts of the fictitious Middle Earth.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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