Oh My Gourd! The Topsfield Fair Giant Pumpkin Topped The Record

There's going to be plenty of pumpkin pie to go around in the tiny town of Tynsboro, Massachusetts. Jamie Graham of Tynsboro topped the record for the largest pumkin this past weekend at the Topsfield Fair. His giant gourd weighed in at a astounding 2,480 pounds! The new giant pumpkin record smashed last year's record by 185 pounds.

You can see the blue ribbon pumpkin winner on display through October 10, the last day of the fair. The New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Contest is one of the most popular events, every year, at The Topsfield Fair. According to the Salem News, Graham (who came in 2nd place last year), has been chronicling the journey of the winning pumpkin on social media, from TikTok to Instagram and YouTube. He also told the Salem News, that his kids named the gourd Bear Swipe. And revealed to the news outlet that his prize earnings were $6,500 for first place, and he recieved a $2,022 bonus for breaking the Fair record.

The pumpkin competition at Topsfield has been going on since 1984. In case you were wondering, the winner that year was a pumpkin grown by Wayne Hackney of New Milford, CT and it weighed 433 pounds. Look how far we've come in the great gourd game!

So, what in the world do you do with a pumpkin this big, after it's been grown and shown?  A jack-o-latern could be a fire hazard. You could make a LOT of pumpkin pie. Or you could get creative, I guess. You could carve it out and make a playhouse. You could put a ladder up the side and make it a slide. Or find inspiration here:

Is it time to pump the breaks on pumpkin spice?

It's Fall, and that means it's the official start of pumpkin spiced...everything. At first it was just pumpkin spiced coffee at Dunkin and then Starbucks got on the trend, and now it's everywhere and in just about anything.

For the start of fall, Google Trends just did a big round-up of all the pumpkin spice products we've been googling.  And it turns out a lot of cat owners want pumpkin spice KITTY LITTER to be a thing.  It's the top pumpkin spice "scented" product people have been searching for.  It actually HAS been sold before at Walmart in Canada, but it looks like they might not have it in stock this year.

Google also looked at the top pumpkin spice food or drink each state is oddly obsessed with this year . . .

For Massachusetts Pumpkin Spice coffee is by far the number one Google search, New Hampshire loves Pumpkin Spiced cream cheese best, Rhode Island prefers Pumpkin Spiced hot chocolate, Maine likes pumpkin spice creamer and Vermont enjoys pumpkin spice syrup and wait till you see what Connecticut is into.

Here's my list of the Top Five Kookiest Pumpkin Spice Products!

Virginia is for Dump Cake? This is the top search for folks in Virginia, I have to  admit it looks a whole lot better than it sounds.

https://www.asouthernsoul.com/pumpkin-spice-dump-cake/

In the Peach Tree State of Georgia, they prefer their wine pumpkin spiced.

https://commonsensehome.com/how-to-make-pumpkin-wine/

There's pumpkin spiced hummus around us and it's in North Carolina. To be fair it looks more like a dessert than something that you would have in the usual hummus way

https://www.onceuponapumpkinrd.com/pumpkin-spice-dessert-hummus/

For Washington state it's Cup O' Noodles Pumpkin Spice... oh boy

For Connecticut and Indiana the choice is Pumpkin Spiced Spam. At first I thought this was a joke, but nope. It actually might taste better than you think. In fact, it might be better than the original Spam.