Something a bit different today – a link roundup instead of writing:
- from the University of Illinois Extension, a great set of links: Pumpkin History, Pumpkin Facts, Pumpkin Varieties and the saliva-inducing Pumpkin Recipes
- The World's Largest Fruit: A Squash Or A Pumpkin? from Wayne Armstrong – this article is a few years old, since a new record was set this year...
- Giant Pumpkins includes news on this year's record-holder as well as a List of Previous Record Pumpkins. I understand this hobby requires you to spend hours every day with a pumpkin.
- Pumpkin and Hallowe'en via Wikipedia
- The Great Glass Pumpkin Patch from the MIT Glass Lab (includes how to make a glass pumpkin and an image gallery)
- Resources for Home Preserving Pumpkins from the US National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia
- the Society of Physics Students at the University of California Chico's Annual Pumpkin Drop (Pumpkin Drop 2005 has video!)
Two asides: 1) I haven't been able to identify today's pumpkin, but I might update the name and this entry after I talk with Tony Maniezzo (who tends the Food Garden); and 2) If you're wondering what the design is, it's a hummingbird and a stylized flower.
Updated October 31 at 1:34 PM local time: After talking with Tony, I believe this is the cultivar 'Schooltime'.
A beautiful design on this pumpkin. It takes the pumpkin out of the ordinary!
I would really like to know the techniques that were used to create this masterpiece. How deep did the carver have to cut, and what tools were used? Was the design taken from an illustration or drawn freehand?
I think the deepest cut was about 2cm – it helped to have a thick-skinned cultivar for this technique. The only tool was a sharp, small knife that could cleanly cut through the flesh of the pumpkin.
The design was freehand, and mostly done within the last ten minutes of the hour allotted for pumpkin carving, after I figured out what the shapes I initially started with were going to be...
Thank you
I just discovered your site, so I missed this holiday pumpkin line-up, but it's very cool.