Hampshire Pumpkin festival

Last night Alex diligently sat and cut up, de-seeded and peeled a 45kg pumpkin (not the one in the picture above - that was a 1000lb+ one from last years show!) ready to be made into pumpkin soup for the Hampshire Pumpkin Festival being held tomorrow at Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley, Hampshire. He will be there representing the local Allotment and Gardens Association along with some other members who have lots of baked goodies for sale too, some pumpkin based. Imogen will no doubt play her part too as she was very good at helping to sell their wares at the annual show in August.

The festival is in it's 12th year and promises an "afternoon of Autumnal fun for all the family with pumpkins taking centre stage. Pumpkin food of all kinds, bbq, Pumpkin Olympic games, Big Draw art activities, storytelling, all kinds of stalls and art and craft activities. Make a Scarecrow & bring to our Scarecrow Avenue. Tex Mex band ’Snakeoil’ and Southampton Ukelele Jam to entertain you plus dancing".

"Celebrity guests include children’s author Helen Cooper reading from her award-winning books Pumpkin Soup and Pipkin of Pepper as well as BBC Gardeners World presenter Toby Buckland who are bringing along one of the Gardeners World grown pumpkins for the weigh off".

The festival costs £1.50 for adults and 50p for children with proceeds going to the Jubilee Sailing Trust charity which offers sailing opportunities for both able-bodied and disabled people. A really worthy charity.

Last year the winners were the Paton brothers who have been growing big pumpkins for competitions since they were 13 years old, and have taken their pumpkins around the World. They hold the British record for the heaviest pumpkin and are this year aiming to break the World Record. They were on the local news last night estimating the weight of their largest one. They are bringing 3 to the show - all weighing well over 1000lbs!

last years winning pumpkin

If you are in the area, this is a great afternoon out. It's a lovely park too with mini-railway, pebble beach, parkland and plenty of areas to walk. We were there last year in glorious sunshine, which looks to be repeating itself this year, and had a lovely time looking at all the giant pumpkins and some other veg, taking part in some crafts, listening to music, watching dancing, etc.

Looking forward to a lovely afternoon out, Imogen and I have drawn and coloured in some pumpkin faces, spider webs, etc to decorate the stand and will no doubt dress up for the occasion.