GUESSING... how many orange jelly beans are in a large jar is a time-honored Halloween game, as is trying to figure out how many miniature candy bars a trick-or-treat bag can hold. But attempting to discern how much a giant pumpkin weighs? As in, a really enormously ginormous pumpkin? As in the sort of specimen that needs serious machinery to be transported to a scale? That's a harder Halloween season to trick to get right, unless you're familiar with the mega pumpkin scene. And people around Half Moon Bay definitely are, for that's where the annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off takes place each October. And while some good guesses might be made among the people handling the...
GARGANTUAN GOURDS, the scales ultimately tell the tales. And tales shall be told, of some gorgeous stem-topped wonders, on Monday, Oct. 12 when the famous weigh-off returns to the charming hamlet. A big change in 2020? No spectators will be present, due to pandemic safety, but pumpkin fans can tune into a livestream on Facebook to see all the action go down (and around, too, since measuring the girth of the pumpkins is part of the process). The first place prize money? It "... will be awarded in a 'pay-by-the-pound' system with the champion receiving a hefty $7 per pound." And if someone has grown a pumpkin that smashes the world record?
OH GOURDNESS: They'll snag a "$30,000 mega-prize," an amount that will surely sweeten their awesome pursuit of growing amazing squashes. The action gets super-seedy from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., so tune in to see the play-by-play. To read all of the rules behind this venerable event, which marks 47 years in 2020, roll on over to the weigh-off headquarters now. Gourd, er, good to know? The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, which traditionally follows the weigh-off by a few days, is cancelled in 2020.
