Celebrating pumpkins of all shapes

Southwell's pumpkin and squash crop. Photo / Supplied

Hamilton's Southwell School will be one of 28 schools entering this Sunday's Great Pumpkin Carnival at Hamilton Gardens.

Four years ago Southwell launched its Pumpkin Club, driven by school sous-chef Garth Lusty.

This season, for the first time, an area was set aside to allow students to grow their pumpkins at school. This had improved the success rate, Lusty said.

"Previously they had taken seeds and tried to grow them at home. But some of the students are quite young and seedlings would die and they'd miss out. At school it is seen as supplementing their learning and if it doesn't work out they're not disheartened."

Lusty said Southwell was the first school in New Zealand to establish its own pumpkin club with its own Facebook page.

This season had a peculiar start with lots of cool, wet, weather not so good for growing record-breaking pumpkins. The students didn't grow any of the giant sort but concentrated on the smaller colourful varieties including Jack-o-lanterns, streaky, triambles, cinderella and bi-coloured squash, he said.

The Great Pumpkin Carnival was the brainchild of event organiser and society president Jenny Rowden, who came up with the idea nine years ago while helping out in Hamilton Gardens' kitchen garden.

"I suggested it to (gardens director) Dr Peter Sergel and he said "put it on paper". She did, one thing led to the next and now the Great Pumpkin Carnival is the largest event of its sort in New Zealand.

Not only is the competition to see who can grow the most enormous Atlantic Giant pumpkin, but there is the Pumpkin Great Race for pumpkins on wheels and a Celebrity Challenge which has so far attracted a spectrum of political entries, along with foodie publisher Vicki Ravlich-Horan and Sarah 'The Gardener' O'Neil.

The carnival ends with a giant down-hill demolition derby among the larger entries, which ends in a lot of smashed pumpkins, Rowden said.

The New Zealand record for the heaviest giant pumpkin was set at last year's carnival by Morrinsville farmer Tim Harris with a 789.5kg example.

Competitive giant pumpkin growing is big news in other parts of the world and seeds from champion varieties change hands for large sums. The North American heavyweight for 2016 was a 1025.8kg monster grown in Rhode Island.

The heaviest British example was grown in Essex in October and weighed in at 603kg - from a seed costing $2225.

The Great Pumpkin Carnival will be held between 10am and 3pm Sunday April 2 on the Rhododendron Lawn, Hamilton Gardens. Categories and classes for everyone, school and celebrity activities, pumpkin racers, heaviest and cooking. Food and entertainment available. Pre-registration is not necessary. Competitors can turn up with their entries on the day.

The Great Pumpkin Carnival is the only pumpkin festival in New Zealand that is registered with the Pumpkin Commonwealth in the USA. This means any record set here will be officially recognised. Further information at www.thegreatpumpkincarnival.co.nz