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Issue Date: October 21, 2001
Hooked on pumpkins
They're not just for Halloween anymore. Our love for the orange orb has grown to giant proportions.
by Mary Ellin Lerner
It's Indian summer in plant form, a plump and generous icon of fall. We stir it into comforting pies, plunge our hands into its stringy interior to pull out nutritious seeds, carve its pleasingly round surface to cheer us through the change of seasons, and celebrate its sunny essence with festivals and parades. We love its heft, its blazing color. It lifts our spirits as we head into shorter, chillier days.
The Great Pumpkin lives. As Halloween has ballooned into a billion-dollar business, our penchant for the glorious orb has swollen as well, and with it a profusion of pumpkin patches, fairs and products. Hundreds of festivals and weigh-offs are under way from Keene, N.H., to Calabasas, Calif. (whose very name comes from the Spanish word for pumpkin or squash). Visitors can pick from a greater array of pumpkins than ever before: tiny white Baby Boos, striped Cushaws, 200-pound Prizewinners, even blue pumpkins. "Pumpkins bring out the best in us. They remind us of happy times," says Tim Beeman, publicist for California's Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival, where 250,000 enthusiasts converged this month to peruse crafts, feast on pumpkin pancakes and watch Mike Valladao, "the Picasso of carvers," transform 800-pound pumpkins into dinosaurs, Disney characters and cigar-puffing curmudgeons.
"I've had 2-year-olds mesmerized by what I do and bikers who come up to me," Valladao says. "Pumpkins appeal to everyone. They're also a part of American history."
Pumpkin carving was introduced by Irish immigrants, who had a tradition of sculpting turnips into lanterns to ward off evil spirits on the eve of the Celtic New Year, the original Halloween. Today's front-porch artisans can choose from a variety of commercially available tools. Pumpkin Masters, the leading company for carving products, offers a cornucopia of mallets, scoops, drillers and decorations, along with a Web site (pumpkinmasters.com) where visitors can download a free pattern.
Pumpkins originated more than 5,000 years ago in Central and South America. Native Americans introduced them to the European colonists, who stirred them into stews and dried them for winter fare. Today, pumpkin can be found in doughnuts, ice cream, chili, burgers and cheesecake as well as that seasonal favorite, pumpkin pie. The Circleville (Ohio) Pumpkin Show boasts a pie 5 feet in diameter. After four days on display, it's fed to hogs. "The pigs love it. It's their party of the year," says Katie Miller, manager of Lindsey's Bakery, which started the tradition in 1952.
Pumpkins are big -- and getting bigger. Cinderella could hitch a ride in one of today's prize-winning behemoths, a variety known as Atlantic Giants. Resembling kitchen stoves, they weigh in at more than 1,000 pounds and have to be hauled on tarps and in vans to weigh-offs. Growing giant pumpkins is a popular pastime, as thousands of gardeners compete for a place in the record books, cash awards of $25,000 or more, and the chance to sell the prize winners' seeds for more than $200 each. Giant-pumpkin growers hand-pollinate the flowers, heap on manure and fish emulsion by the bucketful, drain wells to water their weighty prizes and even hug the golden fruit to cheer it on.
Of course, along with the hype comes heartbreak. Dave Stelts of Leetonia, Ohio, who broke the world record last year with his 1,140-pounder, was en route to an appearance on "Live! With Regis" in New York when his giant pumpkin developed a 12-inch soft spot. The TV spot was canceled, and he headed home to dump the forlorn fruit on his compost. "I was crushed," Stelts says of the Regis debacle. Still, elation outweighed disappointment. "It's a big thrill to see the reaction you get with a giant pumpkin. You drive down the highway with a big one in the back of your truck, and people slow down, wave and give you a big thumbs-up."
Watching a pumpkin evolve from a dumpling to a dishwasher is the magic for Stelts, whose giants can increase by 30 pounds a day in July and August. It's at the heart of the pumpkin's robust optimistic spirit, the thing we're celebrating everywhere this season.
"It's amazing," Stelts says. "You can virtually watch them grow."
 Quiz: Learn more about Halloween traditions
Mary Ellin Lerner displays her jack-o'-lantern in Washington, D.C.
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