Local Families Score Big Fun With Pumpkins in Half Moon Bay Contest

The winning pumpkin at may have broken a state record at 1,704 pounds, but Los Altos and Los Altos Hills can boast an estimated 2,256 pounds in pumpkins brought by three families to the contest.

The Pasmooij and Kasso families of Los Altos, and Vince Zunino of Los Altos Hills, entered six pumpkins in the weigh-off, with three from each of the Pasmooij children, two from the Kasso children, and one from Zunino.

Justin Kasso, 10, was first among the Los Altos/Los Altos Hills crowd, with his pumpkin weighing in at 392 pounds. Next was Zunino’s pumpkin at 247 pounds,  followed by Justin’s sister Paige, 6, at 171 pounds.

The Pasmooij children finished with Eveliena, 7, presenting a 164-pound gourd, Mabelle, 9, a 133-pound pumpkin, and Violet, who just turned 6, an 89-pound one.

“It’s so fun,” Pasmooij mom Laurie said after the event, their second year in a row. The Pasmooij family, including both sets of grandparents, one set visiting from Holland, got up at 5:45 Monday morning and spent the entire day in Half Moon Bay.

The night before the family had a party with friends, “and everyone chose which ones they thought were the heaviest.”

She said last year the family attempted to grow 300 pumpkins as a fundraiser for the children’s school, Springer Elementary, but this year they focused on growing only the largest pumpkins for the Half Moon Bay contest. She said they have about 15 pumpkins in their yard all more than 50 pounds each.

“It was a good year,” Laurie Pasmooij said. She credited fertilizer from the family’s pet rabbits, as well as a product called Ocean Fertilizer. Her husband surrounded the pumpkins with cages to protect them from pesky squirrels.

The children named each of their pumpkins this year. The largest, Eveliena’s, is called “Watermelon”, for its red color and watermelon shape. Mabelle’s, named “Old Friend”, was the first pumpkin that appeared this year. Violet’s “little” pumpkin, at 89 pounds, is named “Ruby”, for its bright orange-red color.

The Kasso family also had a party on Sunday, called the “Pumpkin Moving Party.” About 20 to 25 friends and neighbors came over to help the family hoist the pumpkins into a truck. They pay the "laborers" with pumpkin-flavored treats, such as muffins and cookies.

“It’s sort of an annual crazy event that we do,” Suzanne Kasso said. The family has undertaken growing large gourds in their Marvin Avenue yard for the Half Moon Bay contest for three years now.

Suzanne Kasso said her husband Chris does “the lions share” of the work, but that the entire family helps with digging trenches and plucking blossoms to optimize the size of the pumpkins at harvest time.

Zunino is the long-time veteran of the group, with 12 years of experience growing competition-worthy pumpkins. He started when his kids were small, and has continued every year since.

But Zunino doesn’t go for the biggest pumpkin, his goal is to enter the prettiest. Every year he carefully crossbreeds varieties to achieve the optimal color and shape. Last year he won in the category, "Most Beautiful".

“There’s so much focus at the weigh-off on the big guys, I thought years ago that they don’t even look like pumpkins,” he said, referring to how many of the giant record-breaking pumpkins flatten out, losing their pumpkin-shape, and many times are not even an orange color. “So I kind of got on a kick to grow a big pumpkin that’s orange.”

The one he wound up officially entering wasn’t even the largest pumpkin he grew this year.  His largest pumpkin, which he had hoped to enter in this year's "Most Beautiful" contest, was estimated at 1,060 pounds. He said it wasn’t orange enough to be the prettiest, however, describing it as more “marmalade”.

Despite not making it into the "Most Beautiful" category, Zunino said the giant squash will be on display at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, 1 Miramontes Point Rd., this month.

The 247-pound pumpkin he did enter is going on display at the restaurant at the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel, 2825 Sand Hill Road, in Meno Park.

Zunino said growing the pumpkins is “just a hobby." He grows them in his yard; each plant can take up as much as 800 square feet.

So how does one transport a 1,000-plus pound pumpkin?

“I have this contraption that I built called a ‘Pumpkin Plucker,’" Zunino said. He described it as similar to a hoist used to remove engines from vehicles. He puts the gourd in a harness, and pulls straight up with the hoist. Then he backs his truck up underneath, and lowers the pumpkin into the truck bed.

While Zunino’s pumpkins are on display at regional hotels, the other two families’ squashes are remaining closer to home.

Pasmooij said their pumpkins soon will be on display at Springer in the school gardens for families to enjoy.

Suzanne Kasso, who used friends and neighbors for the heavy lifting to get the pumpkins to the competition, said when they returned to Los Altos yesterday, they drove the pumpkins to their children’s school, Covington Elementary, so that the students could “ooh, and ah.”

Back at home the family was given an assist by Los Altos Nursery, which sent over a forklift to offload the pumpkins back into their front yard, where they will remain on display all month.

“The whole of Los Altos comes and takes photos with their kids in costumes,” Suzanne Kasso said. “It’s a community event.”