WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Giants of the Fall on Display

Giants of the Fall on Display

Williston, Vermont - October 7, 2009

Terry Keim has spent much of his free time over the past few months in his backyard, tending his pumpkins: giant ones. He sighs, "My goal this year was 1000 pounds, but I think I'm going to be a little short!"

He's had to protect his plants from rain and prop pumpkins up on mats so they don't sink into the mud. "They really flourish at 80 degrees," he explains.

The fruit of all that labor looks sort of like deflated Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade floats. Because the pumpkins are so heavy, they can't grow as perfectly round as their small jack-o-lantern cousins.

John Young of the Vermont Giant Vegetable Growers Association says, "They have a family tree, just like we do."

Serious growers even trace a pumpkin's lineage, documenting if two cross-pollinated plants produce big fruit. "We don't let the bees do anything. We close up everything before it opens and do our own pollination. [We play] a little mood music, maybe!" Young chuckles.

If the thought of mating fruit sounds odd, then consider this. The info in online pumpkin databases can pump up the sales of giant pumpkin seeds, some of which have sold for $500 or more. John Young says, "If you're going to spend 200 hours in a patch, you're going to want to have a pretty good idea of what it's produced in the past."

This pastime attracts engineers, doctors, farmers -- just about anyone. While friendly competition between growers is part of it, another appeal is simple. "Just because it's fun to watch them grow. They grow so fast!" beams Terry Keim.

You can see Keim's mammoths and others in person Saturday October 10th. Growers from all over the state will be at Sam Mazza's farm stand in Colchester for their annual weigh-in at 1 pm. For more on that, visit this website. 

After that contest Saturday, many of the growers will give their big gourds to the Giant Pumpkin Regatta Sunday on Lake Champlain. For more information on that event, click here.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News