Pumpkin Round Up Weighs In

 

Like the famed swallows returning to Capistrano, pumpkins large and small made their way back to their ancestral homes on Sunday, in this case Pinkham’s Plantation in Damariscotta, for the first annual Pumpkin Round Up.

 

The event was hosted by the Maine Pumpkin Growers Organization (MePGO). The Round Up is an outgrowth of the organization’s burgeoning Damariscotta pumpkin festival celebration. The pumpkins entered in the local weigh off were literally the fruit of the annual pumpkin seed giveaway that MePGO members host in the spring, also at Pinkham’s.

 

Amateur growers submitted their pumpkins for the weigh off in exchange for prizes including growing products and gift certificates.

 

Ed Reed earned top honors, submitting a 688-pound pumpkin. Reed credited lots of Russell’s fresh cow manure for his success. Reed said he just grows giant pumpkins for his grandchildren. Last year he grew a 503-pound gourd.

 

“The two littlest ones carved it out,” Reed said. “They were standing in it and we took a picture. They gave me a coffee cup with that picture on it for Christmas.”

 

Reed said he has a few more pumpkins left at home; at least one estimated at 450 pounds and a couple more 300-pounders.

 

MePGO founder and president Bill Clark of Bristol said he was pleased by the response to the annual round up but also a little concerned.

 

“We are starting to see the benefits of the seed giveaway,” Clark said. “Now we are starting to see some nice fruit, some big fruit. We are going to have our hands full at the weigh off next year.”

 

Fifteen growers contributed to the Round Up. Michael Cameron took second place with a 433.5-pound effort followed by Gail Woods (392), Mary Trescott with Michael Lailor (379.5), Richard Cummings (329), Crystal Miller (328.5), Maryssa and Kylee Poland (306.5), Bill Babb (298), Gary Pitcher (211.5), Morgan Scavetta (211), Robyn Tukey (139.5), John Faulstich (105.5), Ruth Gilbert (97.5), and Kathleen Gustafson (72.5)