While my 'Baby Bear' pumpkins are growing like gangbusters (we must have at least 15 fruits nestled under the umbrella like leaves), I cuddled up under my down comforter the past few evenings and read Backyard Giants, The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Susan Warren. The book follows the 2006 growing season of several growers/breeders in their quest to harvest a 1500 pound world record winning fruit. I learned a great deal about the joys and heartbreaks involved in such an endeavor, but it did not make me want to grow a pumpkin that I couldn't eat or have to use a tractor to pick up.
Sometime in the next month my dark green orbs will turn bright orange and we will gently place them in the back of Tim's truck with as much care as a prize contender to transport to our Virginia house. There we will cut some up for jack-o-lanterns and some we will eat in pie. Pumpkin growing has been a very satisfying growing experience and I have already picked up a few packets of seeds for next year's crop. With all our open fields, maybe we will try a couple of those giant pumpkins, just for grins.
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haha! I've alwasy wanted to grow a giant something just for fun. If you do get a good sized pumpkin, you could donate it to a local school and have the kids guess how much it weighs for a prize. That's what the local farmers did in my town. The biggest pumpkin we had weighed in at 310 pounds and I almost got the prize guessing 320.
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