In a Half Moon Bay parking lot, a pair of forklifts held aloft two of the most beautiful pumpkins known to man. Host Cameron Palmer, namesake of the local British pub and owner of a suit adorned with pumpkin illustrations, fawned over their sultry orange hues, taut stems and voluptuous curves.
One pumpkin looked like a bulbous and alluring mutant apple. The other was five times the size and had the deflated shape of a poop emoji, but in the world of extreme gardening, it is considered centerfold material. A crowd of 200 or so locals delivered a chorus of catcalls, voting with their cheers for the title of “prettiest pumpkin.” It’s a serious honor, but ultimately, pumpkin beauty is in the eye of the beholder. How could you choose just one? The emcee announced a tie between Eric Carlson and Hailey and Patrick Winnen.
Each of them won $500, but this was just a consolation prize. The main event at the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off is about bulk, not beauty, with the fattest pumpkin earning its grower a $9-per-pound prize — or $30,000 should they break last year’s world record of 2,749 pounds.
The yearly event draws farmers from around the country who have cracked the genetic code for growing pumpkins that weigh over a metric ton. Forklifts carried over 50 pumpkins toward the stage, one by one (the whole affair took more than five hours). A team of judges from the official Great Pumpkin Commonwealth governing body inspects the gourds for rot or holes (more than two results in disqualification), and then the pumpkins are set down on a scale, their girth jiggling ever so slightly, like October Jell-O. With the push of a button, the weight appears in a digital number, and dreams are made or smashed.
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SFGATE’s three-person pumpkin reporting team arrived on the scene around 9 a.m., and the competition was already well underway, with TV news crews flanking the stage. The first pumpkins would be the pride of any patch........