500-Pound 'Giant Pumpkin' Grown In South Bay: See

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — There's nothing quite like a trip to the pumpkin patch when fall rolls around. But have you ever seen a 500-pound pumpkin?

Guests at the Santa Cruz County Fair were wowed by the sight of Peggy Pumpkin, the hefty product of painstaking love and attention from giant pumpkin grower Erin Stoker, 62, of San Martin.

To Stoker, growing colossal pumpkins is about more than bragging rights or the excitement she sees on the faces of her grandchildren, who love to sit on the biggest pumpkins, and guests at the county fair.

It's a form of healing.

Stoker suffered serious brain injuries in an accident and turned to pumpkin-growing seven years ago in search of relief. With a little help from her 87-year-old father, Stoker put her heart into growing pumpkins — and her hard work paid off.

"It kind of became like some therapy," she said. Her hand-eye coordination improved, and she spent cherished moments with her dad, musing about seeds and digging in the dirt.

She reveled in the routine, feeling of unity with the earth, fresh air and quiet that came with growing pumpkins that weigh more than most people.

And then there's the element of surprise. One day, a pumpkin might look like a ball that children might play with.

"You get up in the morning, and you go out there, and it's 30, 40 pounds bigger," she said. "The bigger ones ... grow 50 pounds overnight."

Stoker even found a new community through her hobby. She joined the Giant Pumpkin Growers Association, attended seed swaps and started placing bets with friends: Whoever grows the year's biggest pumpkin gets $1.

"I have three withered dollars on the barn, falling off," Stoker said. "But I get a new dollar this year."

Stoker makes winning look easy. But growing giant pumpkins is no simple feat.

The secret is in well-prepped soil, she said. Stoker files, soaks and plants about a dozen seeds in April, then spends the following months meticulously caring for the earth and crops.

She's learned a thing or two about genetics through "sexy time" — hand-pollinating her pumpkins — and is careful to bury each pumpkin vine as it grows and peeks out of the soil, she said. When it becomes clear which pumpkins have the potential to be her prized crops, Stoker carefully transports her strongest contenders to a greenhouse.

"It's trial and error," she said. You never know whether a pumpkin has rotted on the bottom until you pick it up.

Eventually, it's harvest time. It requires a couple of men to wrestle the biggest one into a special pumpkin strap and lift it onto a wood pallet in the back of a truck.

With all the care Stoker puts into her pumpkins, it might not come as a surprise that she talks about her gourds as if they were old friends.

Before Peggy, there was lumpy Bertha, Pamela and Lily, who rotted at the bottom, "but she was beautiful. ... Oh, God, she was pretty."

Stoker parts with her prized pumpkin friends each year to share the joy with guests at the county fair or a nearby nursery.

This year, Peggy Pumpkin was the crown jewel of the Santa Cruz County fair pumpkin patch, where she sat alongside 20 giant pumpkins, brussel sprout stalks and the best-dressed vegetable: a zucchini in a bikini.

"So many kids don’t know where their food comes from," said Kayce Pavlovich, co-chair of the fair's agriculture and horticulture committee, in a statement. "It’s fun for them to learn it doesn’t come from the grocery store."