Farmer reveals recipe for scarily big pumpkins

A farmer who has grown a scarily big pumpkin for the second Halloween in a row said she hoped to break the world record for the largest winter squash - as she finally revealed the secret of her ginormous gourds.

Frances Crickmore, from Fen Farm Dairy, near Bungay, Suffolk, competes with her son Jonny to see who can grow the biggest pumpkin.

Last year she won with a 58-stone (368-kg) whopper, compared to his 2.9-stone (19-kg) effort, and this year her 55-stone (349-kg) pumpkin beat his 7-stone (44-kg) attempt.

She says her success in the inter-family grow-off is all down to her granny's green tea recipe of manure and water, which she feeds to her pumpkin twice a week.

But, like last year, she also invested a lot of time and effort into caring for it to ensure it had the best chance of fulfilling its potential.

"I spend so much time with mine - I covered it every night from when it's tiny to when it's finished with blankets, coats and towels," she said.

"If it rained, I would whizz out there and put something on top of it - I just love growing everything. I'm just one of those hands-on people.

"Jonny's was a complete flop, it was tiny, and he's not going to beat me, ever, and now I want to beat the world record."

Earlier this month, American farmer Ron Wallace's pumpkin was declared the heaviest ever, weighing 225.4 stone (1,431kg), according to Guinness World Records.

It came just days after the UK's Ian Paton was told he had grown the biggest pumpkin after it tipped the scales at 204 stone (1,295.8kg).

While Crickmore's fell a little short of the mark in comparison, she said she had "done quite well" and was "very proud".

"I would love it to be big, a lot bigger, but it's lovely to just see it sitting there and at the moment it is really beautifully round at the front," she added.

"People think it is plastic, but it is as hard as a rock."

Once the season is over, Frances plans to remove the pumpkin's 400-500 seeds and give them out to people so they, too, can have a go at growing their own next year.

And, so as not to waste the fruits of her labour, the rest of it will be fed to the farm's cattle, provided it can actually be cut-up.

"Whether we'll carve it or not, [I don't know], I think we'll need a chainsaw," she said.

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