This Years's Show- Sat 11 October

We hope your pumpkins are growing well. But don't worry if they aren't. Last year we had a winner with a pumpkin which weighed less than two ounces! This year's contest will be on Saturday 11 October 2008 in Longparish Village Hall. We are starting at 4 to make it easier for parents to bring children.  Hot dogs and light refreshments will be available (no charge but donations welcome) to keep hungry people going while the judges do their stuff.  All entries are free but please support the raffle (in aid of playgroup) and bring a raffle prize if you can.

There will be prizes for decorated pumpkins, prettiest pumpkin and the most unusual pumpkin as well as the usual prizes for size for all ages.

Background Information

Here you can:

• Find out about the varieties for our next competition. These include varieties good for eating and some fantastic decorative ones of all shapes and sizes as well as the big one - Atlantic Giant which can grow to over 1000 pounds. That is about the same as the weight of all the children in playgroup put together
• See results and pictures of last year's competition on Saturday 6 October 2007
• Read up on how to grow them
• See pix and reports of earlier competitions
• Read our recipes
• See examples of decorated pumpkins

Do you have recipes or experiences you'd like to share. If so we can publish them here. Please email them to info@longparish.org.uk or phone Jeremy Barber on 720459.

For hundreds of links just search on Atlantic giant pumpkin with Google . Don't try just searching on pumpkins by itself unless you are a real fan of a pop group called the Smashing Pumpkins.

Here are some of the links we liked best

	some great pumpkin clip art but it takes a while to load
	blog of Ian Patton who broke the UK record this year with a pumpkin weighing 1124 pounds
	P and P seeds - the firm where we get the really special seed. It is easy to order on the Internet and they deliver quickly. But the seed is expensive and you must have permission from an adult to use a credit card on the net.
	Kuerbismuseum - a German site with a comprehensive collection of pictures of pumpkins of every size shape and description