Pumpkin Time
About 15 years ago, the Swiss discovered Halloween. They’d always had pumpkin displays, but generally small and tasteful.
But then the idea of an extra celebration caught the corporate retail imagination and we all went Kürbis Krazy. Kürbis being the German for Pumpkin, if you hadn’t twigged.
Two brothers have caught onto this trend and turned their beautiful farm, overlooking the Pfäffikersee (that’s a little visited lake near Zürich btw) into a full-blown Pumpkin Experience.
Obviously, there’s the "how big is the biggest pumpkin?" question; and since you are asking, 363kg (800lbs) is this year’s biggest, around 100kg down on last year’s biggest. That’s apparently due to the poor summer we’ve had; but it’s still a lot of soup.
The theme of this year’s exhibition (other than pumpkins, gourds and squashes naturally) is signs of the zodiac. All twelve signs are represented, so as a Piscean, you can imagine how delighted I was to see two fish made antirely of pumpkins.
Why not pop along on one of these beautiful autumn days and amaze yourselves?
Photo credits: www.juckerfarmart.ch; Julie Collins
7 Comments
Growing these giant pumpkins seems to be a global “sport”. MY local newpaper just reported on a contest in the U.S. where the winning gourd was 1272.5 lbs (577kg). It filled the back of a pick up truck.
WOW That’s a lot of dedication! (And pumpkins!) That pumpkin boat in the link you provided kills me! Too funny.
Halloween is celebrated in France as well. It’s taken time for it to catch on, but every year more and more people are celebrating and kids go out trick-or-treating!
[...] walls. This just shows how much the Swiss have to learn, we still think that Halloween equates to Pumpkin Time, and don’t get any scarier than making a statue of a crab out of [...]
I never got to Trick or treat as a child, and I just hate it now. I guess in the UK children are discouraged from going out by themselves these days!
577kg? That’s pretty massive. Can nature really do that from one seed and some water?
And glad you liked the boat Heather!
[...] From Geoff at The Switzerland Traveler: Swiss pumpkin time. [...]