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Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever | 
 enlarge | Author: Susan Warren
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $10.74
You Save: $14.21 (57%)
New (26) Used (8) from $8.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 187349
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 1596912782
Dewey Decimal Number: 635.62
EAN: 9781596912786
ASIN: 1596912782
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW BOX2
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In the tradition of Word Freak and Confederates in the Attic, a charming, witty account of a season in mad pursuit of the world’s largest pumpkin.
Every year, the race to grow the biggest pumpkin in the world draws a rowdy crowd of obsessive gardeners to county fairs and weigh-offs across the country. The competition is furious; there’s sabotage and treachery and the heartbreak of root rot, and many a weigh-off ends in tears. This year more than just the grand prize is at stake. The Holy Grail is within reach: the world’s first fifteen-hundred pound pumpkin. And Ron and Dick Wallace will stop at nothing to get it.
Backyard Giants follows a tumultuous season in the life of a close-knit tribe of competitors as they chase down the ultimate pumpkin prize. In the grueling and gut-wrenching quest for truly colossal fruit, vacations are postponed, marriages are strained, and savings accounts are emptied. Backyards are converted into leafy laboratories of biogenetics and toxic chemicals—to say nothing of pumpkin sex. Riding shotgun with Ron and his father Dick, Wall Street Journal editor Susan Warren brings to life a winning and unforgettable crew of pumpkin lunatics: the newbie who shocked everyone by growing the big one last year; the pro-bono slime scientist; the groundhog assassin; and the safety trainer who risked electrocuting himself to save his patch. Funny, sharp, and engaging, Backyard Giants is a romp through a charming corner of American life, as quirky and enchanting as the big pumpkins themselves.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 A truthful insight to the sport February 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had a great time reading this book. I too grow pumpkins and had a hard time setting this book down. Easy to read and gives a real behind the scenes on this sport, showing that growers have lives outside of pumpkin growing as well. If you want to grow a giant pumpkin yourself this book won't give you much for information on that topic. It is meant for more the humanity side of things.
Mr. President meets The Great Pumpkin January 26, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Bill Clinton was quoted in the "Washington Post" a few weeks ago: "That's the biggest pumpkin I've ever seen. It looks like we need a steroid inspection here." I googled " Big Pumpkins " and found lots of information, including this charming and fascinating book.
Susan Warren is a gardener. She googled a personal gardening question one day, and incidentally found guys that were obsessed with creating monster pumpkins. She wrote a front page story about them for the "Wall Street Journal", and this book grew out of that article.
Warren describes the pumpkins, of course, but her book is much more about those obsessed guys. She grew a giant pumpkin (240 pounds) as a research project, but both she and her architect husband "got sucked in ... this is a very dangerous book. It sucks in people who like a challenge."
She is amazed at the diversity of growers: airline pilots, engineers, Wall Street analysts, bankers, truck drivers, country club managers and "your mom could be a giant pumpkin grower." They live in a number of countries: the US, England, Germany, Australia, and elsewhere. She believes they are all overachievers, the kind of people who work all day and then come home and put in a few more hours in the garden.
Warren writes that the giant pumpkin competition started out with a lot of secrecy involved; there was very little sharing. The Internet changed that. Growers soon realized they couldn't hold secrets, and 15 new world records have been set in the last 18 years. [The current record is 1,689 pounds set by Joe Jutras in Rhode Island who is mentioned in the book, but who set the record after the book was released.] The philosophy is now: "I'm going to beat you. I want to beat you at your best. So here, let me help you."
Bill Clinton understands the challenges {apparently an expert on giant Arkansas watermelons): "If you give it too much water and the skin breaks, you're eliminated. And if you give it too little, somebody else beats you because they've got a bigger melon or a bigger pumpkin. So like at the end, under very tense circumstances, there are these constant judgment calls. It's kind of like being President."
The growers feel a moment of mutual elation when a new record is set, according to Warren. That moment represents many years of hard work, many years of disappointment, many years of learning and education. A key point of the education is that these fruits are no longer pure pumpkins, but the result of cross breeding with other heavy cousins like squash. The goal is to be heavy -- weight is the only objective measurement of size. A smaller pumpkin can weigh more than a larger one, so the growers strive to increase density. They don't look so much like pumpkins anymore; Warren writes that they resemble "deflated Thanksgiving Day parade floats."
She says that the growers don't care about looks, they care about 40 to 50 pound a day weight gains during the peak growth period. That rate will put a great deal of strain on the pumpkin which can lead to the disaster of split skin and disqualification that Clinton spoke of. Growers report that they can hear the pumpkins growing, a creaking and groaning, especially at night, much like the sounds of corn growing back in Wisconsin many years ago.
Several other details caught my attention:
- Despite their enhanced density, these giants will float.
- They can be hollowed out and raced in Pumpkin Regattas.
- Growers thump them vigorously to judge density.
- Getting rid of gophers and other varmits provide some of the most intense moments; a lost bud can severely weaken a pumpkin vine. ("You'll still get a pumpkin, but you want a champion.")
- All growers become soil scientists, and now rely primarily on organic fertilizers.
There is a bit of pathos in this book: Ron Wallace, the featured grower, loses one of his pumpkins: "Ron's disappointment was sharp and deep and all too familiar. He cracked the rotting skin open in hopes of recovering some seeds. But the seeds swimming in a fetid pool of neon-orange slime were limp and lifeless. Disgusted, he left the broken shards of giant pumpkin lying in the grass next to the garden, an organic monument to disappointment."
As the extract shows, Warren is particularly good at describing the depth and complexity of the obsession these competitors. If that human element appeals to you, you'll enjoy this book.
All its promised to be...and more December 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Backyard Giants is a fascinating and informative book on the art, science, competition and reward of growing giant pumpkins. The author depicts the trials and tribulations of growers in Rhode Island, Ohio, the West Coast and Canada. A close-knit group of growers in Rhode Island are followed for an entire year as they prepare, plant, harvest and competitively show their giant fruits. The growers are depicted as compassionate, committed, scientific in their own right, and competitive. Through the author's creative writing style the reader is compelled through each stage of the giant pumpkin process. The pictures are an added bonus - driving home the amazing undertaking of growing something over 1,000 pounds in just four months. The joys and heartbreaks of this sport are well described, and leave the reader with respect and in awe of the growers.
The author did an excellent job researching all aspects of growing giant pumpkins. I found myself with numerous questions as I read the book and inevitably the author answered every question I had. The author writes for those having no prior knowledge of pumpkin growing - but would also likely interest those who were knowledgeable in the field. She has a creative use of vocabulary and story telling. I was sorry to see the book come to an end, but also very content with the ending. This book is well worth the reader's investment.
A Delightful Journey... October 25, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Who says gardening is a gentle hobby? In "Backyard Giants," Ms. Warren takes us on a journey through the passionate and far-from-gentle world of competitive pumpkin growing. With a masterful eye for the telling detail and a narrative voice that sweeps the reader into this unusual world from the very first page, this is delightful and eye-opening read -- especially for those who've never wielded pruning shears or pored through garden catalogues at night.
Frustration and Glory October 22, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This should be a must read for new growers considering trying their hand at growing giant pumpkins at the competitive level. There's no shortcuts and even if you do everything right, there's no sure bet you will have a pumpkin to show at the end of the season. Such is the case with many of the veteran growers who are profiled in this book. But the glory that comes with a ribbon winning giant keeps them pushing on past the disappointments.
I enjoyed getting a more personal view of the famous growers you will see on the top list of winners and in the books by Don Langevin.
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