Check Out These “Smashing” Pumpkin Events

Circleville Pumpkin Show (Photos by Jack Mader)

By Teresa Woodard

This weekend, the Circleville Pumpkin Show will celebrate all things pumpkin with giant pumpkin weigh-ins, a super-sized pumpkin pie and plenty of pumpkin-flavored foods.  This small central Ohio town of 13,000 expects 400,000 visitors for its106th annual pumpkin show, October 17-20.
The show kicks off with a weigh-in among area pumpkin growers vying for a coveted giant pumpkin trophy and perhaps a shot at breaking the world record set earlier this month when a Rhode Island pumpkin grower broke the one-ton mark with his 2,009-pound pumpkin at the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts.

Weigh-in at Circleville Pumpkin Show

No doubt, this season’s drought conditions presented challenges for many Midwestern pumpkin growers. A recent story in the Columbus Dispatch reports the drought reduced the number and size of pumpkins in many Ohio patches, but the summer’s abundant sunlight also produced more-attractive pumpkins. And growers who irrigated their crops have both better-looking and bigger pumpkins to offer this year.  Two Midwestern states, Illinois and Ohio, are among the country’s top pumpkin-producing states with Illinois ranking #1 as home to Libby-branded pumpkin products and Ohio ranking #3, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

To learn more about giant pumpkins, check out these resources:

• Big pumpkins website
• Giant-pumpkin growing workshop, Oct. 27, 10 a.m. in London, Ohio
• Burpee’s tips for growing huge pumpkins