pumpkins

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Minnesota Man's Pumpkin Smashes World Record

2,749-pound gourd wins $30K prize

(Newser) - A Minnesota horticulture teacher set a new world record in California on Monday for the heaviest pumpkin after growing a giant jack-o'-lantern gourd weighing 2,749 pounds. Travis Gienger, of Anoka, Minnesota, won the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, with an...

Border Patrol Found More Than Pulp Inside These Pumpkins

Officials discovered $400K worth of meth in gourds arriving from Mexico

(Newser) - Last week, more than $300,000 worth of methamphetamine was uncovered at Texas' Eagle Pass Port of Entry, across from Piedras Negras in Mexico. This week, drug smugglers got a little more creative with their meth stash: cramming it into four condom-filled pumpkins, reports NBC News . A release from Customs...

846 Pounds of Pumpkin, 38 Miles of River

Duane Hansen of Nebraska awaits his place in the Guinness World Record books

(Newser) - The powers-that-be behind the Guinness World Records have been alerted—a Nebraska man paddled 38 miles down the Missouri River in a giant pumpkin. If Saturday's feat by Duane Hansen is confirmed, he will take his place in the record book as the person who completed "the longest...

Enormous Pumpkin Disqualified From Winning $20K Prize

Tiny crack means no cash for would-be winner

(Newser) - It’s a great pumpkin—the heaviest in the US, even. Its grower, Mike Schmit of Wisconsin, says “it weighs in at about 2,520 pounds,” ABC7 reports. But that great pumpkin will not win any prizes, thanks to a tiny, tiny crack. To win the Safeway World...

Nightmare Projectile Flies Into Student's Car

Caleb Needham says he 'just started shaking'

(Newser) - An Indiana student came within inches of serious injury or death Sunday when a pumpkin came flying through his windshield, WXIN reports. "I just started shaking because I guess I was so scared," said Caleb Needham. "I entered like a shocked state. I'm like, 'What...

Pumpkin Theft Prompts Bizarre Police Lineup

St. Louis residents can claim their stolen fruit

(Newser) - Police who caught three teenagers orange-handed with 48 stolen pumpkins—and one gourd—are asking residents of a St. Louis suburb to view a "pumpkin lineup" online to see if their Halloween squash are among those recovered, reports the AP . The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports pumpkins began vanishing last...

Students Pose With Pumpkins Carved With Swastika, 'KKK'

Viral photo blasted by Pa. school district as 'reprehensible'

(Newser) - An eastern Pennsylvania school district is dealing with a second race-related incident in just over a week, investigating a Facebook photo showing current and former students posing with pumpkins carved with racist symbols. The pumpkins included one with a swastika, and another with the letters KKK. The photo shows four...

Woman Critically Injured by Pumpkin Cannon

'Punkin Chunkin' contest hit by tragedy

(Newser) - Delaware's famous Punkin Chunkin competition, in which teams fire pumpkins impressive distances from an assortment of contraptions, was hit by tragedy Sunday when a pumpkin cannon blew up, critically injuring a 39-year-old woman. The "Pumpkin Reaper" air cannon was getting ready to launch a pumpkin when the trapdoor...

Jack-o'-Lantern Lighting Sends Girl to Burn Center

But family says she's OK

(Newser) - Authorities say a 7-year-old girl ended up at a north Florida burn center after her grandmother attempted to light their jack-o'-lantern with green flames using household chemicals, the AP reports. The Florida Times-Union reports that 62-year-old Wanda Michelle Reyna called 911 Sunday evening, saying that fire had splattered on...

'A New Low for Crime': 200 Pumpkins Stolen

They could sell for up to $3K

(Newser) - Almost 200 pumpkins were stolen from a New Jersey farm stand in the wee hours of Tuesday, a crime that required the culprits to make three trips to fill up their van with pumpkins. All three trips were caught on surveillance video that's been released by the family-run Farms...

Craft Breweries Are Finding Specialty Hops All Tapped Out

In spite of rapid growth in supply, demand is causing headaches

(Newser) - Henry VIII once called hops a "wicked and pernicious weed," but they're crucial to the production of most beers, especially when it comes to "hoppy" India Pale Ales, or IPAs. In fact, more than 4,000 brewers are battling for less than a dozen popular hop...

Dad's 2,261-Pound Pumpkin Breaks Son's Record

Wins Rhode Island pumpkin weigh-off

(Newser) - A Rhode Island man has squashed a record set by his son by taking first prize in a pumpkin contest with a 2,261.5-pound gourd, the AP reports. WJAR-TV reports Richard Wallace's 2,261.5-pound pumpkin beat the North American giant pumpkin record set by his son, Ron,...

Brewers Are Scrambling to Get Pumpkin for Fall Beers

Blame it on the weather

(Newser) - No, the predicted Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2015 didn't actually live up to its name, as Fortune reported last November. But that's in part because the companies that can pumpkins didn't hold onto reserves for the following year's crop—that would, of course, be this year'...

Giant Inflatable Pumpkin Escapes, Terrorizes Phoenix

Giant gourd broke free from its restraints, wreaking havoc on city streets

(Newser) - It's the Great Untethered Pumpkin, Arizona! Halloween tricks came early for some drivers and pedestrians in the Phoenix area Thursday when a giant inflatable pumpkin bounded down the roadway in high winds. The 25-foot-tall, 350-pound pumpkin escaped from its display promoting the Peoria Sports Complex's Monster Bash, sailing...

Biggest Pumpkin Ever in N. America Hails From Smallest State

2,200-pound monster was grown in Rhode Island

(Newser) - Zuckerman's Famous Pig , make way for Ron Wallace's Famous Pumpkin. "Oh my gourd" is the only appropriate reaction to the country club manager's monster entry in a Rhode Island competition over the weekend: The pumpkin weighed in at 2,230.5 pounds , with a circumference...

We Really Aren't That Crazy About Pumpkin Lattes
We Really Aren't That Crazy About Pumpkin Lattes
NEW STUDY

We Really Aren't That Crazy About Pumpkin Lattes

They're nice, but only about once a season: study

(Newser) - You'd think our pumpkin latte obsession would have to be pretty bad to warrant a study on their sales, but it turns out most of us like a taste only about once every season. Market research firm NPD Group reviewed fall and winter receipts from some 35,000 diners...

Starbucks to Actually Put Pumpkin in Pumpkin Spice Latte

The battle over caramel coloring comes to an end

(Newser) - Starbucks lovers, rejoice: The pumpkin spice latte controversy is over! The company announced today that its popular fall drink will finally be made with real pumpkin, USA Today reports. To recap, (the controversial ) food blogger Vani Hari wrote a viral piece about the latte drink last year and pressed...

Theft of Kids' Onions Has Happy Ending

As does the theft of other kids' pumpkins

(Newser) - What started out as a lousy lesson for a fifth-grade class in Maine has turned into a nice one instead. As the Morning Sentinel reports, the lousy part is that somebody stole all 100 onions planted by the class. The kids were going to give them to the school cafeteria...

Thief Returns Stolen 100lb Pumpkin to Boy

Along with note of apology

(Newser) - A 9-year-old Pennsylvania boy got his huge pumpkin returned to him yesterday by an apologetic, if anonymous, thief. Jaiden Newcomer won the pumpkin at a festival when he guessed how much it weighed (100 pounds, according to the York Daily Record ), and the behemoth required four adults and a...

Irene's Belated Cruel Blow: Pumpkin Shortage

Farmers in the Northeast watched their crops wash away

(Newser) - Hurricane Irene destroyed plenty of things—and one of them could be Halloween. There's a serious pumpkin shortage in the Northeast, the gloomy result of the destruction Irene inflicted on the region's pumpkin patches. The AP talked to one farmer in upstate New York who watched his entire...

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