Bringing the farm to the city: Locally grown giant pumpkin, squashes on display in Boston
Rose explained he and some pumpkin growers typically return to Boston in November to cut up the vegetables and place the pieces in compost bins picked up in the city.
Greenfield Recorder
By Domenic Poli
Oct 21, 2022
Excerpt:
A giant pumpkin and two giant squashes grown in this pocket of New England are on display at Boston Public Market to be admired by the masses until mid-November. Erving resident Art Kaczenski grew a 1,772-pound pumpkin and a state-record 1,269-pound squash while LuAllen “Lou” Chadwick, of Swanzey, New Hampshire, nurtured a squash that weighed in at 773 pounds. Al Rose, owner of Red Apple Farm in Phillipston, drove the enormous vegetables to Boston on Oct. 11 after they were featured at his farm’s annual Pumpkin Weigh-In and Festival.
“It’s always so much fun when you can bring the farm to the city,” Rose said. “Seeing a giant pumpkin … it’s like having your first cider doughnut — you will always remember that.”
Kaczenski, 47, said he began growing regular-size pumpkins with his grandfather when he was 13 “and it kind of snowballed into what I do now.” He said this was the sixth consecutive year he has grown the largest pumpkins at Red Apple Farm’s event and he is thrilled that Rose volunteers to cart the gargantuan produce to the state’s capital.
