Fall follows fame (sort of) for Worland giant pumpkins
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Time is running out for a couple of upstart giant pumpkins in Worland. Maximus and Gourdon (‘Gourd-on’) burst onto the scene last spring, the subject of Twitter tweets, YouTube videos and a grower’s blog at Big Pumpkins.com. They have their own Facebook page. Worland seems to be growing a patch of pumpkin fanatics.

Caitlin Youngquist, a University of Wyoming Extension educator, introduced the aptly named Maximus and Gourdon on her “Dr. Caitlin” website in March, and the pair just kept growing, literally. A soil scientist in Washakie County and the Big Horn Basin, Youngquist specializes in soil health, compost, organic waste management – and giant pumpkins. Her site covers hot topics to growers, such as pumpkins’ chemical makeup, male and female flowers, fungus and root relations and eating baby pumpkins – which she did, grilled, with salmon.

Washakie County grower Jay Richard nurtured Maximus and Gourdon from Dill’s Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds, with Youngquist advising and shooting how-to videos on her cell phone. Like a proud papa, Richard posted photos and growth reports on Big Pumpkins.com. Both pumpkins have flat bottoms, he said, but Maximus developed a collapsed top. “It was a genetic mutation,” he said. “I was advised to just pull him, because he would never amount to anything.”

Though Maximus was supposed to be the star, Richard pinned new hopes on Gourdon. Both pumpkins lived for one thing – the big weigh-in at the Lungren Girls’ Farm Sept. 27. On the big day, pickup trucks and flatbed trailers hauling hefty pumpkins arrived at the Girls’ Farm section of South Flat Land and Livestock south of town. Maximus and Gourdon sprawled across their wooden pallets. A skid-steer forklift offloaded them beside other orange hopefuls.

“We found it was a good way to get people excited about growing giant pumpkins,” said Younquist, who had two, Maybelle and Missy, in the running. “It was an adrenaline rush,” said first-year grower Kevin Diede. “My pumpkin started off like a rocket ship, but it slowed down when I stopped singing to it. You can’t go out every night with the guitar.”

As kids wandered through the 12-acre, USA-shaped corn maze at the Lungren Girls’ Farm, the skid-steer lifted contenders onto the certified scale. Gourdon busted the county record at 596 lbs. The genetic mutant, Maximus, weighed in at a respectable 490.

With celebrity status cinched, the punk stars set out on tour. Richard took time from his auto detailing business to accompany his “kins” to four schools, the Kiwanis Club and the local nursing home. They even rode in the homecoming parade Oct. 2. The homecoming theme was Squash ’em.

“The end of the line is when they get carved,” said Richard. Gourdon was carved by Ryan Green, who Richard calls a “master,” in an exhibition Oct. 28 in front of Blair’s Grocery Store. Green prepared by making a model of Gourdon, using about a hundred photographs and a 3D printer.