Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Festival returns Oct. 5 and 6
Extra-extra-extra-large pumpkins will face off in a weigh-off this Saturday in Elk Grove. Photo courtesy Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Festival
Bring on the giant pumpkins! It’s time for a weigh-off!
This weekend, the Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Festival returns to Elk Grove Park, headlined by its Giant Pumpkin and Produce Weigh-Off.
Check-in is 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 5; for entrants, advance registration is $10 (including parking and breakfast) or $25 at the gate.
“For 30 years, Elk Grove Park has transformed into the ultimate autumn celebration, attracting pumpkin enthusiasts from far and wide,” say the organizers. “Since 1994, the festival has been a beacon for giant pumpkin growers competing for glory. Over the years, we’ve seen some incredible pumpkins, like the 2,138-pound record-breaker from 2018. Imagine the size of that pie!”
Spectators can watch the actual weighing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the awards presentation at 4 p.m.
This contest could produce a record breaker. The top contenders will all weigh more than 1,000 pounds. Last year’s heftiest pumpkin nearly topped a ton – 1,940 pounds. The biggest Sacramento County-grown pumpkin (which has its own award): 1,589 pounds.
“Giant pumpkin growers from all over California and beyond will be vying for the top prize – and perhaps a world record – as each of their enormous gourds hit the scale,” say the organizers. “Enter your own produce or pumpkins for a chance to win cash prizes, or cheer from the stands as the monstrous orange orbs are moved with a forklift to a special scale.”
Not just pumpkins will be competing. There also are categories for the heaviest zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, tomato, squash and other members of the squash/pumpkin family as well as longest gourd, widest sunflower head and tallest corn stalk.
Judging by last year’s winners, contestants will have to bring some whoppers. Taking home top honors in 2023 were a 3.7-pound tomato, a 220-pound watermelon and a 54.4-pound zucchini.
Meanwhile, the Giant Pumpkin Festival has many other opportunities for people to compete with pumpkins including recipe contests and bake-offs, a pie-eating contest, scarecrow decorating and the always popular pumpkin regatta (where giant pumpkins become canoes for a one-of-a-kind race).
Besides all the pumpkin, the festival features entertainment, music, food trucks, vendors and more. There’s a pumpkin patch, too; take a gourd home!
With free admission, the festival runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 5 and 6. Parking is $20, but a bike valet is available free.
Elk Grove Park is located at 9950 Elk Grove-Florin Road, Elk Grove.
For full details including a festival map and contest rules: https://www.cosumnescsd.gov/392/Elk-Grove-Giant-Pumpkin-Festival
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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