NH Pumpkins - the Biggest, the Most, the Fastest

New Hampshire roadsides are adorned with farm stands that display October's harvest, which includes lots of pumpkins. We love our pumpkins! We grow them, carve them, eat them, and race them. I decided to share some of our more unusual pumpkin-fests in honor of this time of year when we celebrate the season with pumpkins.

The Biggest
October 5, 2002 was a banner day for New Hampshire at the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts. The Topsfield Fair is the largest event in New England for giant pumpkin growers. This year, seven of the top ten giant pumpkins were grown in New Hampshire. The world record was set by Charlie Houghton of New Boston, NH whose pumpkin weighed an incredible 1,337.6 lbs! He had an eleven-hundred-pounder as a spare in the event anything had happened to his ultimate winner. If he had been forced to enter his alternate, he would have won third place behind Bruce Whittier of Henniker, NH whose entry weighed in at 1,186 lbs and Jim Huhn of Goffstown, NH whose entry weighed in at 1,177.6. (The Goffstown News, 10/10/02)

The Most
All eyes will be on the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, New Hampshire. The city is pumped to break it's own record set in 2000. That was the year that went down in the Guinness Book of World Records history when the Keene night sky glowed with the lights from 23,727 jack-o'-lanterns!

The tradition began in 1991, when Keene closed off Main Street to traffic and the downtown merchants welcomed trick-or-treaters. Several thousand people turned out to see what was then a spectacular display of 600 lighted jack-o'-lanterns. As the years passed, the number of festival goers increased right along with the number of jack-0'-lanterns. By 1999, the people count had swelled to 50,000 and the jack-o'-lantern count tallied 16,349.

Although the main attraction is the quest to break the jack-o'-lantern record, the festival offers music, lots of good food, hayrides, face painting, fireworks, and an opportunity for the little folks to sport their scariest and/or best Halloween finery.

If you want to be a part of jack-o'-lantern history, be in Keene on October 26 and bring at least one carved pumpkin containing a three inch votive candle!

See the Pumpkin Festival site for more information. Don't miss the photo gallery.

The Fastest
The Giant Pumpkin Weigh Off and Regatta is a fun filled weekend, which runs from Friday, October 18th through Sunday the 20th. Although the giant pumpkins are not quite the size of those at the Topsfield Fair, they are nonetheless impressive. The winning pumpkins, which must be New Hampshire grown, tip the scales at the 700 - 1,000+ lb range. You don't have to feel left out if you don't happen to have a 700 lb pumpkin in your garden. Bring a dish that includes pumpkin as one of the ingredients for a chance to win the pumpkin cook-off contest. Or enter your little ones, four to seven years old, in the Pumpkin Prince and Princess contest. There are games, crafts, a dance, and a spaghetti dinner, as well.