Team "PumpkinHammer" watch their trebuchet as it launches in the Punkin Chunkin 2006 World Championship in Millsboro, Del. This year, the World Championship Punkin Chunkin contest takes place the first weekend in Nov. in Bridgeville, Del. The event began in 1986 and bills itself as the oldest and largest competition of its type.
What can you do with pumpkins?
The list is not all that long.
You can make pumpkin pies and breads, carve jack o'lanterns or use them to decorate your front porch.
Or you can send them hurling into the autumn sky at 400 mph with a 30,000-pound cannon.
It's pumpkin-chunkin' season!
Well, actually, we just missed it. But it sure looks like it was SMASHING!
Pumpkin chunkin'
Pumpkin chunking (or Punkin' Chunkin' or pumpkin chucking) is hurling a pumpkin by mechanical means over great heights and distances in an attempt to hurl the pumpkin the farthest. In order of increasing effectiveness, the devices include compound slingshots, catapults, trebuchets, and pneumatic air cannons. The range achieved by loads greatly depends on their mass, shape, and size; the yield limits, stiffnesses, pitch, and elevation of the hurler; and the wind speed. The better pumpkin chunkers specially grow dwarf, regular, firm pumpkins ideal for use as a cannon projectile, assabots are prohibited in competitions. Such competitions disallow self- or ground-powered pumpkins by chemical reactions. Another rule is that the pumpkin must be whole after leaving the device for the chunking to count, which limits the forces in the cannon barrel (pumpkins that do not leave the barrel intact are referred to as "pumpkin pie in the sky"). Outside of lengthening the barrel, the limit is on the pumpkin which, as a corollary, of course must be natural. The special pumpkins grown by some are thus not suitable for eating. The latest record for a chunked pumpkin is about 4800 feet.
Maybe you can catch one of the festivals next year ...
The World Championship Punkin Chunkin contest takes place Nov. 2-4 in Bridgeville, Del., about 30 miles from Lewes and 90 miles from Washington. The event began in 1986 and bills itself as the oldest and largest competition of its type. Last year over 50,000 spectators turned out to watch 100 teams compete, organizers said.
Pumpkin Chuckin in Moab, Utah, last weekend Oct. on Old Airport Runway, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
The Bristol Pumpkin Festival, Bristol, Conn., last weekend Oct. noon-2 p.m., at Roberts Orchards on Hill Street. Contestants are invited to power their pumpkins with "springs, rubber bands, air, muscle, centrifugal force, brute strength, power architecture and bicycles."
Pumpkin-chucking weekend, first weekend Nov. in Ellicott City, Md., at Clark's Elioak Farm, 10500 Clarksville Pike.
Pumpkin Chuck, first weekend Nov. in Cincinnati's Stanbery Park on Oxford Avenue, noon-5 p.m. Buy a pumpkin on site or bring one from home for the "Two Buck Chuck," where for $2 you can launch your gourd sky-high from a trebuchet.
Since 2004 there has also been an European Championship in Bikschote, Belgium. The European record is 305 meters.
I'm just "unglued" about the fact that we don't have a Pumpkin Chunkin' festival in Wisconsin!
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So, what do you think about all of this? Cool, huh?
