The city of Half Moon Bay was out of its gourd again Monday morning for the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, and it was a squeaker, as the winning 2,471-pound pumpkin won by a razor-thin margin of just six pounds.
At the very first ever Half Moon Bay World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in 1974, the winning pumpkin weighed a mere 132 pounds. Times have changed. Last year, Travis Giegner of Anoka, Minnesota was smashing pumpkin world records with the largest pumpkin ever grown, weighing in at an astonishing 2,749 pounds. Giegner was back in Half Moon Bay Monday morning for this year’s World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, would he break his own world record?
Giegner did not break the world record this year, but his 2,471-pound pumpkin named “Rudy” did win the top prize. Yes, he drove that thing nearly 2,000 miles in a pickup truck. And he will get a cash prize of $9 per pound for winning first place, so that’s more than $22,000 for his efforts.
As for his secret to growing these prize-winning pumpkins, Giegner told the crowd, “Focus on soil biology and soil health, and the rest should take its course.” And who knows, maybe there’s some form of pumpkin steroid involved.
Second place went to Brandon Dawson of Santa Rosa, whose 2,465-pound missed first place by only six pounds. Dawson said of his drive down from Sonoma County, “The hard part was being on 19th Avenue. If you know 19th Avenue, it’s not the smoothest road. So every single bump, I felt them all.”
Despite missing first place, Dawson does now have the distinction of growing the biggest pumpkin in the state of California this year.
Here are your final four, each of these gourd-zillas weighing 2,300 pounds or more.
There was also a “Most Beautiful Pumpkin” contest, which drew to a tie between growers Eric Carlson of Portola Valley and Hailey and Patrick Winnen of Half Moon Bay. They will split the $1,000 prize.
You can watch the full video of the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off online. Yes, it is more than six hours long, as there are lengthy gaps between entries as forklifts carry each enormous pumpkin to the scale onstage. But these gaps are filled with the charming small-town entertainment of the Half Moon Bay Cougars High School marching band, kids telling pumpkin jokes, and folk singer Jim Stevens singing songs that are very specifically about growing pumpkins or living in Half Moon Bay.
The World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off is just a warmup for this weekend’s full 52nd Annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival (October 19-20). You’ll be able to see these gigantic pumpkins in person, plus enjoy the costume contests, pie eating contests, pumpkin carving art, and a Great Pumpkin Parade at 12 noon on Saturday.
Image: Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off via Facebook
