Because of the Coronavirus, Topsfield, MA has cancelled its annual agricultural Fair for the first time since WWII. It celebrated its 200th anniversary a couple of years ago, and I finally got a chance that year to witness the Great Pumpkin weigh-off. The weight of pumpkins submitted has ballooned over the years, and more than once the winning pumpkin has exceed a ton. That’s 2,000 pounds of jack o’lantern. Often the winning pumpkin got purchased by Disney World for display there.
But because of COVID, people had feared that there would be no pumpkin weigh-off. Not true, it turns out. There will be a weigh-off, but it’ll be a very small affair, with only a few people at a time.
https://gpc1.org/event/new-england-giant-pumpkin-weigh-off-topsfield/
For those interested, there a 1,251 pound pumpkin on display at the main gate:It was grown by Woody Lancaster and donated by the New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Association (which is apparently a thing).
These huge pumpkins are mainly good for being humongous and, I suppose, being carved into outrageously big Jack 0’Lanterns. (although they don’t have that classic pumpkin shape. Being freakin’ huge, they sit on one side, not the bottom, with the stem sticking out sideways. And their shape is distorted by the weight, so that they look as if someone dropped them on the floor before they’ve set.) They’re not particularly good eating, I’m told, because they’re not bred for taste or sugar hoarding. But they look intimidating and cool.