Good Gourd! Connecticut gardener takes home top prize at Topsfield pumpkin competition

TOPSFIELD, MASS. (WHDH) - Farmers brought their pumpkin power to the annual Topsfield Fair on Friday where each gourd was weighed to determine which one is king of the patch.

The giant pumpkin contest is a decades-old long tradition that has participants swelling with pride. The winner of this year’s competition was Connecticut native Alex Noel with a pumpkin that weighed in at a staggering 2,294 pounds.

Topsfield Giant Pumpkin Contest Co-Chair George Hoomis said, “We’re seeing tons of pumpkins coming in, literally there will be some pumpkins that weigh a ton or over a ton.”

Growers who think they have what it takes unloaded their prized pumpkins Friday afternoon and went pound for pound against fellow competitors.

Topsfield Giant Pumpkin Contest Co-Chair Woody Lancaster said, “We’re competitive but it’s just a lot of fun, I don’t know, why do I keep doing it? It’s just in my blood, it’s something I love doing.”

Hoomis has co-chaired the contest for years and has seen the size of the winning pumpkins balloon as growing techniques have grown.

“If you had a 700 pounder you were known as a heavy-hitter, now 1800 pounds, you’re OK,” Hoomis said.

Lancaster is a two-time winner and started growing these pumpkins, known as Atlantic Giants, because his son was interested in it.

“He and I did that together for a number of years and then he lost interested, he’ll kill me but he discovered girls and I stayed with the pumpkins,” Lancaster said.

With a pumpkin that weighs two thousand pounds, Lancaster liked his odds again this year until his neighbor showed up with a pumpkin around 200 pounds heavier.

Growing a giant pumpkin is a family affair according to long-suffering self-proclaimed “Pumpkin Widow” Kim Peters.

“”I hardly ever see him, he’s out in his yard daily, vacations are pretty much non-existent,” Peters said.

Only one person can take home the first-place prize and the contest is a super-sized labor of love for those brave enough to take it on.

“It’s a family, I mean we all know each other, we’re all friends, but we all compete,” Hoomis said.

About 40 people entered the contest this year.

Noel’s pumpkin will be on display at the fair.

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