Whopper pumpkins and flavours grown to the ‘Max’

Sitting on a giant pumpkin, Max Douglas fulfils his family’s tradition of being photographed with champion produce.

Max’s grandfather Richard Clarke grew the giant that is headed for the Goulburn Show on Saturday and Sunday, 1 and 2 March.

Thirty-one years ago Richard sat his son Phillip on top of a big pumpkin weighing 20-odd kilos that won a blue ribbon at the show.

His latest pumpkin, which he has christened Gretel and which is likely to weigh between 140 and 150 kilos, shows how pumpkin growing has ballooned into enormous proportions.

He paid $20 for the seed that sprouted Gretel from Tumut grower Mark Peacock, who grew a 412-kilo pumpkin last year. That monster gourd won at the Royal Easter Show, and was later hollowed out so a mate, Adam Farquharson could paddle it down the Tumut River.

These pumpkins are dwarfed by the thumping great varieties in America which are given 500 litres of water a day and grow to more than a tonne. But in Australia they’re a hardy breed in a climate as unpredictable as the currents of the Tumut River.

Planted on the October long weekend, Gretel germinated in Richard’s greenhouse and was put into the ground on Melbourne Cup day with three small leaves shooting from its stem.

“I was always taught to plant all your seeds on the long weekend in October; you will always get one good frost after that,” Richard said. “So seedlings growing in the greenhouse don’t go in the soil (outside) until Melbourne Cup day.”

But in early November 2024, an even later fierce frost came after the Cup, and wiped out crops and other produce across southern NSW. It hurt Gretel but she quickly recovered.

“Then she got going really well, and just as the flowers had come on, a hailstorm over Christmas came through, knocking the flowers off the vines,” Richard said.

As soon as replacement flowers appeared, he stepped in, pollinating by hand the female flowers from male ones.

He had brought in a load of quality soil from Divall’s sand and soil and worked in well stable manure. Soon the vine was sending down separate roots into the soil and drawing nutrients back to the main plant.

On 14 January, about the time the fruit had set on the vine, Gretel was less than a third of the size of a basketball, but bursting with growth potential.

Last week, frost returned to Goulburn and district, but not severe enough to trouble Gretel, who soaks up water from a sprinkler for an hour each morning and an hour each afternoon.

She is also absorbing plenty of attention from overnight and longer-stay visitors at the Goulburn Motor Inn next door. Since Richard and his wife Jaqueline moved from Marulan onto their large block eight years ago and established the flourishing veggie patch, the motel’s managers have become good friends.

“I call them the garden managers, Noel and Nelly who live next door; they water the gardens and look after them while we’re away during the year, so they are always getting fresh produce from me,” Richard said. “Noel reckons he can sell rooms for extra for their views of my garden, which is quite funny.”

From week to week the view changes, from a gorgeous spread of sunflowers, to tomato vines loaded with big tomatoes and sky-high corn laden with cobs. Passersby photograph the sunflowers, and some stole them. “That doesn’t worry me; I just wished they’d asked,” he said.

Richard’s father Max, a boilermaker/welder at the Chullora Railway Workshops in Sydney where he worked on the last of the Class 38 locomotives, raised the family in Bundanoon and left his children with a passion for home-grown veggies.

“He would always have a giant cauliflower or giant pumpkin, or parsnips or turnips or carrots,” Richard said. “He taught me to leave a large cauliflower go to seed and save the seeds and in time it became climate friendly to the location.”

Teaching him to fish as well led to Ulladulla and lifelong friendships with Italian pioneers of the bluefin tuna industry. Over the years these men, now in their 80s, shared their know-how with him and vegetable seeds as well, including old-style Grosse Lizzie tomatoes and Cayenne peppers.

“They are all keen to hand on their beautiful knowledge, especially for fishing; it has taught me a lot,” he said.

Today, an outstanding pumpkin sits among a diverse range of vegetables with the flavours of many origins.

The Goulburn Show will take place on 1 and 2 March at 47 Braidwood Road Goulburn Recreation Area Showground, Goulburn. More information can be found via the show’s website and Facebook page.

Original Article published by John Thistleton on About Regional.