SeeCalifornia.com

Are you ready for the California Pumpkin Festivals to begin? The race is on!  Pictured (right) is a decorated racer at the annual Manhattan Beach Pumpkin Races.   The left photo shows the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Weigh-off, part of the annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival.

Pumpkin season has arrived and it’s hitting the country by storm. In Cedarburg, Wisconsin last week the North American giant pumpkin record was broken by a proud Gene McMullen who brought in a specimen weighting 2,145 pounds — as heavy as a car! Though his pumpkin didn’t ace world record holder  Beni Meier of Switzerland’s monster fruit, which tipped the scales at 2,378 pounds in 2014, there are still weigh-ins to be held in California in 2015 and anything is possible in the World of  Giants!

Pumpkin festival season launched the first week in October in California with Manteca Pumpkin Fair Oct. 3 & 4, 2015, and their Giant Pumpkin Contest. Manteca is California’s pumpkin capital for growing pumpkins for market. Approx. 8 out of every 10 pumpkins sold commercially in California come from the fields around Manteca where 54,000 tons of pumpkins in 2013 (with a gross value of $16.2 million) were transported and sold.