I’ve been to a lot of different food festivals around Australia over the years, and have seen some quirky events involving the produce of that particular region; I’ve wrestled in mashed potato in South Australia, dodged flying mullet in Tin Can Bay, and cringed as competitors gorged themselves on bowls of strawberries, prawns and oysters.

Me face down in cold mashed potato at the Pinaroo Spudfest, SA

But nothing comes close to drawing the crowd that descends upon Goomeri on the last Sunday in May each year for the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival “Great Australian Pumpkin Roll”.

Goomeri is a beautiful little country town located in the west of the Gympie region at the crossroads of the Burnett, Wide Bay and Bunya Highways and is the gateway to the South Burnett wine region.

It has a population of around 500, but on one day of the year that population swells to around 14 000, as day trippers, charter buses and thousands of caravanners converge on the town to celebrate everything and anything to do with pumpkins.

As well as the Great Australian Pumpkin Roll, which involves hundreds of competitors lining up at the top of Policemans Hill to send their favourite pumpkin hurtling to its fate, there’s the Pumpkin Power Shot Put and Pumpkin Pull competitions, loads of market stalls, cooking demonstrations(I’ll be there doing some this year), live music and of course plenty of pumpkin dishes to be eaten.

The delicious roast pumpkin salad at Wilberley and Sons Cafe, Goomeri

But best of all, and the reason for me writing this blog, is the Giant Pumpkin Competition.

I have seen these beauties at previous festivals and this year I’ve been inspired to have a crack at growing my own entry.

I’ve been online and studied the ins and outs of being a giant pumpkin farmer, bought my 5 seeds from The Pumpkin Lady, and am feeling confident.

I knew that to be successful in growing a giant pumpkin it would take skill, commitment, patience and knowledge.

Which is why I decided to get my dad involved.

Once I received my seeds in the mail, I struck them in individual pots in seed raising mix. It took about 7 days for 2 of the 5 seeds to sprout; the other 3 unfortunately did nothing. Apparently this is pretty normal though.

Once they had grown their first 4 leaves they were ready to plant into the ground. I prepared the soil by adding a trailer load of mulch, 2 bags of chook manure and 2 bags of cow manure and digging it through a patch at my dad’s place in Cooroy.

I planted them right next to dad’s bee hive which should help when they get to the pollination stage.

I gave them a good soak with a mixture of kelp powder and water, and now it’s all up to the giant pumpkin gods to decide if I’ve done enough to come up with an entry for this year’s festival. I’ll keep updating this post as I get flowers and fruit(assuming that I do). The word on the street is that it should take roughly 4 months to produce something around the 200kg mark. So fingers crossed.

Whether you get around to coming up with an entry yourself or not, you should  certainly save the date – Sunday 31st May, to head out and join in on the festivities of the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival. It’s an action packed, fun filled and most of all hilarious day out for people of all ages.

I hope to see you there.

GIANT PUMPKIN UPDATE!!!!

This is what my plant looks like at 6 weeks:

No pumpkins yet, but it’s a nice healthy plant with loads of flowers so far.