Carving a giant pumpkin.
On Sunday, May 20, Seedling Sunday will officially kick off as part of the the 2018 Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta. On Seedling Sunday, volunteer-growers can adopt the 600 10-day-old Atlantic Giant pumpkin seedlings and grow pumpkins that will become the granddaddies of the pumpkin patch. These giants will be featured as pumpkin boats in the regatta and ammunition in the drop, and turned into works of art and displayed on Main Street in Damariscotta and Newcastle and beyond during Pumpkinfest.
Information from Pumpkinfest’s partners in Maine’s Pumpkin Trail — Boothbay Railway Village, Maine Maritime Museum, and Visit Freeport — will be available. Don Carrigan, of Channel 6 news, and his Maine Coon cat, Wally, will be there, as will be Channel 13’s Charlie Lopresti, Maine state-champion pumpkin-grower.
One can join the fun by becoming a Pumpkinfest Squashbuckler on Seedling Sunday from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., or whenever the last plants have been adopted from Pinkham’s Plantation, located at 431 Biscay Road in Damariscotta. Along with a free Atlantic Giant pumpkin plantlet, one will receive helpful growing instructions plus five gallons of free super-enriched compost to give the seedling a healthy start. (Bring a five-gallon container for the compost.)
