RONCEVERTE, WV (WVNS) – Somebody tell Charlie Brown and Linus because one Greenbrier County family just might have grown… The Great Pumpkin.
When Sarah Baker and her family set out last year to try to grow a giant pumpkin for the first time, she had no idea how much success they would have.
“I’ve always loved fall. I’ve always loved pumpkins in general. Everything about it. Harvest season, harvest time. And this is just a culmination of all that love. The love of growing things, the love of gardening, the love of my family and spending time together,” said Baker. “And now we have a big giant pumpkin to show for it.”
And giant is an understatement. Meet Petal and Basil. Two of the biggest pumpkins in the entire state. Petal weighs a whopping 612 pounds. But that’s small compared to Basil, who was so big he had to be forklifted into the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth weigh-off in North Carolina last weekend.
Sarah and her family were hoping Basil, the first giant pumpkin any of them had ever grown, could hit the thousand-pound mark. When the weight was revealed, the family erupted in celebration. 1,080 pounds.
Baker says she’s spent so much time with these two pumpkins over the past year, that they started to feel like family members. And they even have their own personalities.
Baker says it was a thrill to have the pumpkins grow as large as they did, but her favorite part of the process was the hours of caring for the pumpkins she got to spend with her family. And she has a little advice for anyone thinking of starting a hobby, that they fear may be a little too far out there.
“If you see something that you’re interested in, growing things, anything like that, never be afraid to step out and try something new,” said Baker. “You may be great at it, you may be horrible at it, or you may just grow a thousand-pound pumpkin!”