Croton's Ginormous Pumpkin

There's a mighty big pumpkin in Croton-on-Hudson this Halloween. The ginormous  (yes, I said ginormous) pumpkin is proudly displayed outside of the village's Umami Café. This is the second year that Umami's owner Craig Purdy has placed a giant pumpkin outside of his restaurant. This year, in addition to displaying the oversized pumpkin, he is selling seeds from pumpkins that weighed between 650 to 1,000 pounds for charity. 100% of the money from the seeds will go to Croton Community Gardens. "It's the first time I've done it—to try to raise a little funds for the Gardens. And I thought tying it to something that has to do with gardening and growing made sense," said Purdy.

The massive pumpkin outside of Umami is named "Big Ole Ghost." That's because it is much whiter in color than a traditional pumpkin. Workers at Umami decided on a ghost pumpkin this year instead of an orange one, like the one they had last year.

Purdy got the idea for a big pumpkin last year when he went to a giant pumpkin competition in Cooperstown. "It blew me away. And I saw this guy drive in with this beautiful pumpkin… and I said, 'would you sell it to me?' He said, 'okay' and we settled on a price. And later in the day he won best pumpkin. I was really pleased. It was a pretty pumpkin last year," said Purdy.

Giant Pumpkins are apparently a good luck charm for Purdy. When he displayed the giant pumpkin outside his café last year, he had the best sales that he has ever experienced in the period of a month. The fact that "Blaze" is also going on right now is also giving a boost to local businesses. Purdy says 80,000 people come to visit the Halloween attraction at Van Cortlandt Manor.

Umami café is holding a competition to see if anyone can guess how much the pumpkin weighs. On the café's website they give at least one clue, saying that it's "way bigger than last year's 800-pounder."

Whatever the weight, the rotund pumpkin continues to slow down cars that are driving down South Riverside Avenue. Parents who bring their children to the restaurant can't seem to keep them off of the overgrown pumpkin. And once their children climb on top, parents can't help but take a picture of their little ones atop "Big Ole Ghost."