Pastor Bryan Meadows and his daughter Hannah stand next to their recently harvested, 1,600-pound pumpkin, which they named Petra. (EXAMINER PHOTO | SHARYN KOPF)
Call it a labor of love. And labor it was, with over five months of daily attention given to small seed that would one day become so big, they’d need an excavator to lift it. The love, though, all comes from a family working together.
Pastor Bryan Meadows started growing pumpkins seven years ago. But since he grew up in Circleville, Ohio, home of the annual ode to the orange gourd, the Circleville Pumpkin Show, it seems almost inevitable.
“As soon as school got out the third week of October,” Bryan said of his childhood, “off to the pumpkin show we’d go.”
Not surprisingly, he passed that pumpkin passion on to his family. According to Bryan’s wife, Alice, their 23-year-old daughter Hannah has been “out there every day” with this pumpkin, which they named “Petra.”
Hannah worked alongside her dad from the beginning — planting, cultivating and, on Saturday, Oct. 7, she headed out to the pumpkin patch with the rest of the family for what has become a fall tradition: harvest time.
Bryan, who serves as Pastor at Cornerstone Church in Huntsville, feels “fortunate and blessed” to have Hannah by his side, stating, “She adds another layer of fun and excitement to the whole process.”
Harvesting the pumpkin is now part of the Meadows’ family annual reunion, hosted the first weekend in October. Most of the crew were already at their home outside Huntsville on Saturday, with more coming the next day.
But though this isn’t their first harvest, this is the first time they’ll compete. Bryan plans to take Petra to the weigh-off at the Chillicothe Halloween Festival (CHF) this Saturday, Oct. 14.
Unfortunately, he isn’t able to compete in the Circleville competition due to distance restrictions. But he can participate in CHF’s first weigh-off, which is sponsored by the Southern Ohio Giant Pumpkin Growers.
Before going to Chillicothe, though, they drove Petra over to Duff Quarry for an unofficial weigh-in, and the pumpkin topped the scale at 1,600 pounds. Though he knows that isn’t big enough to win—those usually hit a ton or more—he’s excited for the opportunity.
“I’m looking forward to meeting others who grow the giants,” Bryan said, “as well as giving my daughter a chance to compete and gain more rewarding life experiences.”
Bryan admits his first foray into growing giant pumpkins didn’t go well and found himself on a “big learning curve.” So he went back to his hometown and enlisted the help of Dr. Bob Liggett, a regular winner at the Circleville Pumpkin Show. Once Bryan’s former eye doctor, Liggett became his pumpkin-growing mentor.
And it’s working. Petra has almost doubled the Meadows’ 2022 pumpkin, which weighed-in at 850 pounds. With the help and support of the whole family, it sounds like they’ve only just begun their great pumpkin adventure.
Members of the Meadows family—who were at the home of Pastor Bryan Meadows in Huntsville for their annual reunion—join in the tradition of harvesting their latest giant pumpkin. This year’s 1,600 pounder will make the trip south on Saturday, Oct. 14, for a weigh-off at the Chillicothe Halloween Festival. (EXAMINER PHOTO | SHARYN KOPF)