Every year, in October, Half Moon Bay in California, USA, holds a pumpkin competition. The biggest pumpkin grown in a season wins. One winner, upon accepting the prize, gave a handful of his winning pumpkin seeds to his neighbours. When asked why he would give such a marvelous advantage to next year’s competitors he said, “Pumpkins grow by cross-pollination and if everyone around me was growing healthy and large pumpkins, I have a higher chance of growing healthy and large pumpkins.”
Pumpkins bigger than cows, and one as heavy as a Volkswagen Bug, dotted the streets in Half Moon Bay on October 14, 2014, where Halloween festivities turned to sport in the city’s 41st annual pumpkin weigh-off. This year, drought or no drought, a gargantuan white entry took the prize at 2,058 pounds — the biggest the competition has ever seen. More than 40 years ago, the champion pumpkin came in at 132 pounds. Since then, a breed of California growers has nurtured a delicate art, putting in hours of work each day to keep their pumpkins swelling. When tended to correctly, some gourds can gain 50 pounds in a single day.