November 1, 2024 • 18 mins
Sure, we bake them into pies and carve them into jack-o’-lanterns, but there is a wide world of pumpkin growing, rowing, and destruction. In this mini-episode, Anney and Lauren give you pumpkin to talk about. Gourd vibes only.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren Vogel bamb And today we have a
short episode for you, a savor snack perhaps about pumpkins
and like pumpkin shenanigans and what kind of pumpkin shenanigans
people are getting up.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
To a lot as it turns out.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I just carved a pumpkin last night,
which is tame but wholesome.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I painted pumpkin recently. Oh and it was a beautiful.
It was beautiful.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
It was a half Star Wars Night Sky and the
other half was Pride themed.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
And my friend ran over it. Oh no, accidentally.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Oh but sorry, I have.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
This losses shook me.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, I can tell.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
She sent me a picture of it and was like,
murder has occurred.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I would take her to court immediately, pumpkin court.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh no, yes, I hadn't carved my main pumpkin yet
because something about my apartment. I never had this problem
when I was growing up in North Georgia, but's something
about my apartment Atlanta. It rots in like two to
three days.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh wow, yeah, so you're keeping it fresh for Halloween. Yeah, yeah,
the pumpkin is purchased, but the carving much closer to Halloween. Yes,
what design did you do?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh? Just a face?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Just a face.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's kind of like a little winki face. I don't
know if it's effective. I'm not I'm not an artist.
I'm not a visual artist. That's my My medium is words.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Hmm, I agree. Yeah, I just wasn't expecting such a statement.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, yeah, I have this, like I have a really
overactive like sense of like perfectionism or kind of a
need for competitive one upmanship or something along those lines.
I hate being bad at things.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I hate it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And so yeah, when when like other people are better
at art than me, I'm a little bit mad. It's
a completely useless emotion. I should probably figure out how
to not.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
But but insecurity, that's the word that I'm generally looking for.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Very secure about my pumpkin art. I bet your pumpkin
art is great.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm I'm sure it's just fine. I'm sure it's excellent.
I'm sure you put a candle in that sucker. It's terrific. Yes, Well,
this went a little bit deep.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Sorry, guys, I know we're getting to the depth of
the matter. We won't go into it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
In this episode that I was telling Lauren before, I
almost went on big tangent about pumpkin revenge horror movies.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Oh yeah, A surprisingly wide category.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It is, actually, and one of them, at Pumpkinhead, is
pretty well reviewed.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
People like that one.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Oh I love Pumpkinhead. I don't think it's not really
pumpkin related strictly, not.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Strictly, but it is a category. And I will say, Lauren,
I just just treat your pumpkin. Well, don't slight your pumpkin,
you know.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
See that.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
That's the thing. I don't want to slight the pumpkin
with an inadequate carting.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Oh, the pumpkin, it's probably already a little upset that insight.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Been carved out.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I don't know, it could be freeing.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Sure, let's go with that.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Let's ignore the whole category of pumpkin horror movies.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yes, sure, anyway, not to scare.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
You, No, no, we don't.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We don't want to. We don't want to scare anyone.
That's not We're we're not trying to be too spooky here.
Although I am going to start off with a bit
of pumpkin related news that could in some ways be
considered spooky. So in in the city of Cleveland on
(04:27):
October fifteenth, police had to call in backup when a
giant inflatable pumpkin escaped its lawn and blocked off a
whole street. Terre of that, the BBC reported that no
harm was done to officers or the pumpkin during the incident.
(04:51):
And uh, and there were photos and it's hard to
tell from the photos, but like similar, I tried to
find the inflatable pumpkin that was at fault here, and
and it turns out that they come in sizes from
twenty to forty feet. Oh so that's like six to
(05:15):
twelve meters, which is big. That's a big that's a
big pumpkin. So yeah, it's hard. It was hard to
tell from the photos, but somewhere within there is the
size of the pumpkin that we were dealing with.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
These inflatables, they can call some mayhem.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Oh yes, yes, speaking of mayhem, perhaps more controlled mayhem.
We need to talk about pumpkin smashing, okay, because you know, okay,
so like we all use a lot of pumpkins for
jack lanterns here in the United States. It's weirdly difficult
to track down actual numbers of pumpkins sold for carving.
(05:55):
But that being said, something like a little less than
half of Americans, about one hundred and fifty million of us,
say that we plan to carve a pumpkin for Halloween
every year. I don't know how many people actually wind
up doing it, but there you go. However, these pumpkins,
of course, do not last forever. As you said, sometimes
it's a very brief life that a jack o lantern has.
(06:18):
And when we send pumpkins to landfills, it turns out
they leech water because they're kind of mostly water. They
leech water that carries gross stuff from the other trash
out into our local groundwater systems. So if you can
compost your pumpkin, that's great. And there are some other
local initiatives to make it more fun. Enter the aforementioned
(06:40):
pumpkin smashes. So Illinois produces the most pumpkins in America,
and starting in twenty fourteen, this environmental nonprofit called Scarce
started hosting smashes. You bring your pumpkins, they provide like
giant mallets and other tools, and you utterly destroy some
gourds and they compost the results.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Wow. That sounds so fun, right.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Also, if no one has made a it was a smash,
it was a pumpkin smash song.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Do that please? Yes, it's right there, it's right there. Yeah. Apparently,
over the past ten years, Scarce alone has composted over
one two hundred tons of pumpkins through these events, thus
diverting some two hundred and seventy thousand gallons of water
from entering landfills.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, but yeah, they are not the only ones who
host these events. The University of Illinois Extension Department host
smashes now too. There are I think that there are
some events other places in the country. If you don't
have a smash in your area and you don't compost,
you might be able to toss your pumpkin in with
yard trimming bags. Check with your local services.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
This sounds really cathartic. So if oh, yeah, any listener
has done it, Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, I do compost, and I'm like, I am definitely
going to uh do this to my pumpkin before I
put it in the compost. I'm not making it better
for myself, am I?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
No, now that I think about it, we're feeding into
the hole horror movie shot.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Well, this next one isn't going to help either, uh,
because we also have to talk about punkin, check in,
or chunkin as it is sometimes referred to. So this
is a perhaps more spectacular way to get rid of pumpkins,
and that is by building a device from which you
(08:48):
hurl that pumpkin as far as you can. This is
we are talking about the sport of pumpkin checking or
chunkin you if you seach use. The most famous gathering
and competition for this was the World Championship Pumpkin Chunkin,
which got started in Delaware in nineteen eighty six and
(09:11):
seems to have been the first of its kind. It
became an annual event in which growers and engineers came
together to see who could hurl a pumpkin the furthest
using neither electricity nor explosives.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Similar competitions popped up around the world. Teams build like
whatever kind of device they want within the parameters. You know, catapults, trebochets,
air cannons, and yeah, send a weight specified pumpkin a flying.
The industry standard seems to be like eight to ten
pounds per pumpkin. The Guinness record for hurling distance is
(09:53):
five hundred and forty five feet. That's one thousand, six
hundred and ninety meters. That's a long way. It was
achieved via air cannon in Utah in twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Hold on, let me just put this pumpkin in my
air cannon. Then I'll be with you. Oh.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Unfortunately, the World Championship Punkin Chunkin ran into some legal
trouble back in twenty sixteen when a news producer who
was covering the event was unfortunately seriously injured, and they
pursued a civil suit against the organization. The case was
eventually dismissed, but the team responsible for the World Championship
(10:42):
like basically realized that liability laws are not in the
favor of people who hold events where like you essentially
have amateurs building big machines to fling heavy guards around.
Even if you put a warning maybe even if you
have people signed waivers, it's not advisable. Insurance costs led
to canceled events in other states. They wound up licensing
(11:06):
their name to an Oklahoma chuck In organization in twenty
twenty three, but there's no official event from them in
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, it is quite impressive if you've ever seen it.
The pictures of what people make.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Oh yeah, made really fascinating.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Really fascinating, very creative.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And I guess speaking of world records, we do have
some pumpkin records for you, because, as we did mention
in our Pumpkin episode, the field of giant pumpkin growing
is expanding exponentially. There's like no way to not make
puns in there, so they're intended, but I didn't even
(11:58):
have to try anyway, Like, humanity went from like five
hundred pound pumpkins being pretty much the top end to
pumpkins reaching five times that size, thanks specifically to the
development of a new varietal called the Atlantic Giant in
nineteen seventy nine by this Canadian grower whose name is
(12:20):
Howard Dill.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And I love that.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I love that mister Dill produced this amazing pumpkin. Anyway,
spaking at punts, we got the first thousand pound pumpkin
in nineteen ninety six. The current world record grown in
twenty twenty three in Minnesota was two thousand, seven hundred
and forty nine pounds. That is one thousand, two hundred
(12:44):
and forty seven kilos.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's a lot of pumpkin. Wow.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
The record holder, a man by the name of Travis Geinger.
Ginger told Slate magazine that he started the year with
two seedlings. You know, it's good to have a backup
in case one fails, as one did. As it turned
out for him, he told them quote. After the seeds germinated,
(13:19):
I transferred them outside to a little hoop house in
my backyard, right outside my bedroom window, so I could
be right there as they grew. They had good soil, heating, cables,
and grow lights. I spent two to three hours a
day with them. My friends thought I was nuts, especially
because I skipped the opening day of fishing to take
care of a giant pumpkin. This is so wholesome. They're
(13:42):
also it's not cheap. I hadn't considered the costs not
cheap to grow a giant pumpkin. Ginger reports that he
had sponsors who sent him about fifteen thousand dollars worth
of fertilizer and other growing products, and it sounds like
that was not the entire cost of growing this pumpkin.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
There is prize money for winners of the growing contests,
usually in like dollars per pound, with bonuses on top
of that for top winners. There is a global regulating
body for pumpkin sized contests. It's called the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.
(14:22):
They do track other fruit as well.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Hmmm, what a great name. Yeah, Oh, flawless, excellent.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I feel like they need robes, oh right, right, befitting
their position.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
But there's more to do with giant pumpkins than just
measure them.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
There certainly is, and I believe we talked about this
in our Pumpkin episode. You can carve out these big
pumpkins and make a boat, yeh.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
And people do it. Yeah, and they race in them
because of course they do. Of course they do. Why
wouldn't they, Why wouldn't they? Exactly So.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Recently Tualatin, Oregon, held its annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh yes, people in.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Costumes took the helm of carved out gourds and paddled
across the Lake of the Commons. It's part of a
bigger festival that happens there. It's very popular. Pumpkin grower
and previous competitor John Cestek Sea Stack took the top
prize while dressed as a taco. He gave credit to
(15:41):
his vessel, which he called the perfect pumpkin.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yes, he went into detail about how it's shape and
how it was balanced and all of this.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yeah, but if you.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Have not looked up pictures of this, it's glorious.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Oh, it's so glorious. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I mean they're like people dressed as Santa Claus Paddally,
there's Captain America and one like you.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's very good.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Again, just incredibly incredibly aholesome. I love all of this.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yes, and yeah, they If you want more details, you
can go onto the website of like where the pumpkins
come from and who carves them out, because it's not
necessarily competitors often. But if you have been listeners, Oh,
if you have pictures, oh my goodness, you are honor
(16:40):
bound Yeah to contact us.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yes, if you have experience with any of the things
that we want about today. If you just want to
send us a photo of your pumpkin, yes you don't.
You don't need to be insecure like me.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
You can no.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Show that pumpkin. It deserves some love and admiration.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Yes, yes, let's all treat them nicely.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yes, until we let them rot.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Oops.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Hey, sorry pumpkins, no wonder, there's a horror. It's the
circle of life. It moves us. All.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, that's about what we have to say about pumpkins
for now. But if you have any experience with any
of this, if you have seen any pumpkin based horror movies, please.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh yes, you can email us at hello at savorpod
dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at save pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Save is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to us producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
(18:04):
more good things are coming your way.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
In a pumpkin boat
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren Vogel bamb And today we have a
short episode for you, a savor snack perhaps about pumpkins
and like pumpkin shenanigans and what kind of pumpkin shenanigans
people are getting up.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
To a lot as it turns out.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I just carved a pumpkin last night,
which is tame but wholesome.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I painted pumpkin recently. Oh and it was a beautiful.
It was beautiful.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
It was a half Star Wars Night Sky and the
other half was Pride themed.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
And my friend ran over it. Oh no, accidentally.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Oh but sorry, I have.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
This losses shook me.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, I can tell.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
She sent me a picture of it and was like,
murder has occurred.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I would take her to court immediately, pumpkin court.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh no, yes, I hadn't carved my main pumpkin yet
because something about my apartment. I never had this problem
when I was growing up in North Georgia, but's something
about my apartment Atlanta. It rots in like two to
three days.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh wow, yeah, so you're keeping it fresh for Halloween. Yeah, yeah,
the pumpkin is purchased, but the carving much closer to Halloween. Yes,
what design did you do?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh? Just a face?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Just a face.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's kind of like a little winki face. I don't
know if it's effective. I'm not I'm not an artist.
I'm not a visual artist. That's my My medium is words.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Hmm, I agree. Yeah, I just wasn't expecting such a statement.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, yeah, I have this, like I have a really
overactive like sense of like perfectionism or kind of a
need for competitive one upmanship or something along those lines.
I hate being bad at things.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I hate it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And so yeah, when when like other people are better
at art than me, I'm a little bit mad. It's
a completely useless emotion. I should probably figure out how
to not.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
But but insecurity, that's the word that I'm generally looking for.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Very secure about my pumpkin art. I bet your pumpkin
art is great.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm I'm sure it's just fine. I'm sure it's excellent.
I'm sure you put a candle in that sucker. It's terrific. Yes, Well,
this went a little bit deep.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Sorry, guys, I know we're getting to the depth of
the matter. We won't go into it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
In this episode that I was telling Lauren before, I
almost went on big tangent about pumpkin revenge horror movies.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Oh yeah, A surprisingly wide category.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It is, actually, and one of them, at Pumpkinhead, is
pretty well reviewed.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
People like that one.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Oh I love Pumpkinhead. I don't think it's not really
pumpkin related strictly, not.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Strictly, but it is a category. And I will say, Lauren,
I just just treat your pumpkin. Well, don't slight your pumpkin,
you know.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
See that.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
That's the thing. I don't want to slight the pumpkin
with an inadequate carting.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Oh, the pumpkin, it's probably already a little upset that insight.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Been carved out.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I don't know, it could be freeing.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Sure, let's go with that.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Let's ignore the whole category of pumpkin horror movies.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yes, sure, anyway, not to scare.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
You, No, no, we don't.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We don't want to. We don't want to scare anyone.
That's not We're we're not trying to be too spooky here.
Although I am going to start off with a bit
of pumpkin related news that could in some ways be
considered spooky. So in in the city of Cleveland on
(04:27):
October fifteenth, police had to call in backup when a
giant inflatable pumpkin escaped its lawn and blocked off a
whole street. Terre of that, the BBC reported that no
harm was done to officers or the pumpkin during the incident.
(04:51):
And uh, and there were photos and it's hard to
tell from the photos, but like similar, I tried to
find the inflatable pumpkin that was at fault here, and
and it turns out that they come in sizes from
twenty to forty feet. Oh so that's like six to
(05:15):
twelve meters, which is big. That's a big that's a
big pumpkin. So yeah, it's hard. It was hard to
tell from the photos, but somewhere within there is the
size of the pumpkin that we were dealing with.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
These inflatables, they can call some mayhem.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Oh yes, yes, speaking of mayhem, perhaps more controlled mayhem.
We need to talk about pumpkin smashing, okay, because you know, okay,
so like we all use a lot of pumpkins for
jack lanterns here in the United States. It's weirdly difficult
to track down actual numbers of pumpkins sold for carving.
(05:55):
But that being said, something like a little less than
half of Americans, about one hundred and fifty million of us,
say that we plan to carve a pumpkin for Halloween
every year. I don't know how many people actually wind
up doing it, but there you go. However, these pumpkins,
of course, do not last forever. As you said, sometimes
it's a very brief life that a jack o lantern has.
(06:18):
And when we send pumpkins to landfills, it turns out
they leech water because they're kind of mostly water. They
leech water that carries gross stuff from the other trash
out into our local groundwater systems. So if you can
compost your pumpkin, that's great. And there are some other
local initiatives to make it more fun. Enter the aforementioned
(06:40):
pumpkin smashes. So Illinois produces the most pumpkins in America,
and starting in twenty fourteen, this environmental nonprofit called Scarce
started hosting smashes. You bring your pumpkins, they provide like
giant mallets and other tools, and you utterly destroy some
gourds and they compost the results.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Wow. That sounds so fun, right.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Also, if no one has made a it was a smash,
it was a pumpkin smash song.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Do that please? Yes, it's right there, it's right there. Yeah. Apparently,
over the past ten years, Scarce alone has composted over
one two hundred tons of pumpkins through these events, thus
diverting some two hundred and seventy thousand gallons of water
from entering landfills.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, but yeah, they are not the only ones who
host these events. The University of Illinois Extension Department host
smashes now too. There are I think that there are
some events other places in the country. If you don't
have a smash in your area and you don't compost,
you might be able to toss your pumpkin in with
yard trimming bags. Check with your local services.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
This sounds really cathartic. So if oh, yeah, any listener
has done it, Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, I do compost, and I'm like, I am definitely
going to uh do this to my pumpkin before I
put it in the compost. I'm not making it better
for myself, am I?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
No, now that I think about it, we're feeding into
the hole horror movie shot.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Well, this next one isn't going to help either, uh,
because we also have to talk about punkin, check in,
or chunkin as it is sometimes referred to. So this
is a perhaps more spectacular way to get rid of pumpkins,
and that is by building a device from which you
(08:48):
hurl that pumpkin as far as you can. This is
we are talking about the sport of pumpkin checking or
chunkin you if you seach use. The most famous gathering
and competition for this was the World Championship Pumpkin Chunkin,
which got started in Delaware in nineteen eighty six and
(09:11):
seems to have been the first of its kind. It
became an annual event in which growers and engineers came
together to see who could hurl a pumpkin the furthest
using neither electricity nor explosives.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Similar competitions popped up around the world. Teams build like
whatever kind of device they want within the parameters. You know, catapults, trebochets,
air cannons, and yeah, send a weight specified pumpkin a flying.
The industry standard seems to be like eight to ten
pounds per pumpkin. The Guinness record for hurling distance is
(09:53):
five hundred and forty five feet. That's one thousand, six
hundred and ninety meters. That's a long way. It was
achieved via air cannon in Utah in twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Hold on, let me just put this pumpkin in my
air cannon. Then I'll be with you. Oh.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Unfortunately, the World Championship Punkin Chunkin ran into some legal
trouble back in twenty sixteen when a news producer who
was covering the event was unfortunately seriously injured, and they
pursued a civil suit against the organization. The case was
eventually dismissed, but the team responsible for the World Championship
(10:42):
like basically realized that liability laws are not in the
favor of people who hold events where like you essentially
have amateurs building big machines to fling heavy guards around.
Even if you put a warning maybe even if you
have people signed waivers, it's not advisable. Insurance costs led
to canceled events in other states. They wound up licensing
(11:06):
their name to an Oklahoma chuck In organization in twenty
twenty three, but there's no official event from them in
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, it is quite impressive if you've ever seen it.
The pictures of what people make.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Oh yeah, made really fascinating.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Really fascinating, very creative.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And I guess speaking of world records, we do have
some pumpkin records for you, because, as we did mention
in our Pumpkin episode, the field of giant pumpkin growing
is expanding exponentially. There's like no way to not make
puns in there, so they're intended, but I didn't even
(11:58):
have to try anyway, Like, humanity went from like five
hundred pound pumpkins being pretty much the top end to
pumpkins reaching five times that size, thanks specifically to the
development of a new varietal called the Atlantic Giant in
nineteen seventy nine by this Canadian grower whose name is
(12:20):
Howard Dill.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And I love that.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I love that mister Dill produced this amazing pumpkin. Anyway,
spaking at punts, we got the first thousand pound pumpkin
in nineteen ninety six. The current world record grown in
twenty twenty three in Minnesota was two thousand, seven hundred
and forty nine pounds. That is one thousand, two hundred
(12:44):
and forty seven kilos.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's a lot of pumpkin. Wow.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
The record holder, a man by the name of Travis Geinger.
Ginger told Slate magazine that he started the year with
two seedlings. You know, it's good to have a backup
in case one fails, as one did. As it turned
out for him, he told them quote. After the seeds germinated,
(13:19):
I transferred them outside to a little hoop house in
my backyard, right outside my bedroom window, so I could
be right there as they grew. They had good soil, heating, cables,
and grow lights. I spent two to three hours a
day with them. My friends thought I was nuts, especially
because I skipped the opening day of fishing to take
care of a giant pumpkin. This is so wholesome. They're
(13:42):
also it's not cheap. I hadn't considered the costs not
cheap to grow a giant pumpkin. Ginger reports that he
had sponsors who sent him about fifteen thousand dollars worth
of fertilizer and other growing products, and it sounds like
that was not the entire cost of growing this pumpkin.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
There is prize money for winners of the growing contests,
usually in like dollars per pound, with bonuses on top
of that for top winners. There is a global regulating
body for pumpkin sized contests. It's called the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.
(14:22):
They do track other fruit as well.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Hmmm, what a great name. Yeah, Oh, flawless, excellent.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I feel like they need robes, oh right, right, befitting
their position.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
But there's more to do with giant pumpkins than just
measure them.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
There certainly is, and I believe we talked about this
in our Pumpkin episode. You can carve out these big
pumpkins and make a boat, yeh.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
And people do it. Yeah, and they race in them
because of course they do. Of course they do. Why
wouldn't they, Why wouldn't they? Exactly So.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Recently Tualatin, Oregon, held its annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh yes, people in.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Costumes took the helm of carved out gourds and paddled
across the Lake of the Commons. It's part of a
bigger festival that happens there. It's very popular. Pumpkin grower
and previous competitor John Cestek Sea Stack took the top
prize while dressed as a taco. He gave credit to
(15:41):
his vessel, which he called the perfect pumpkin.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yes, he went into detail about how it's shape and
how it was balanced and all of this.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yeah, but if you.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Have not looked up pictures of this, it's glorious.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Oh, it's so glorious. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I mean they're like people dressed as Santa Claus Paddally,
there's Captain America and one like you.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's very good.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Again, just incredibly incredibly aholesome. I love all of this.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yes, and yeah, they If you want more details, you
can go onto the website of like where the pumpkins
come from and who carves them out, because it's not
necessarily competitors often. But if you have been listeners, Oh,
if you have pictures, oh my goodness, you are honor
(16:40):
bound Yeah to contact us.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yes, if you have experience with any of the things
that we want about today. If you just want to
send us a photo of your pumpkin, yes you don't.
You don't need to be insecure like me.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
You can no.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Show that pumpkin. It deserves some love and admiration.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Yes, yes, let's all treat them nicely.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yes, until we let them rot.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Oops.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Hey, sorry pumpkins, no wonder, there's a horror. It's the
circle of life. It moves us. All.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, that's about what we have to say about pumpkins
for now. But if you have any experience with any
of this, if you have seen any pumpkin based horror movies, please.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh yes, you can email us at hello at savorpod
dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at save pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Save is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to us producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
(18:04):
more good things are coming your way.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
In a pumpkin boat
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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