Photo Caption: Tim Dare secures his 1,086-pound giant pumpkin for the trip from the family’s Venado Lake-area property near Delavan to Morton’s Pumpkin Fest, where the homegrown heavyweight would go on to claim the Giant Pumpkin Contest title and a $300 prize..
MORTON — Tim and Jessica Dare of the Venado Lake area in rural Delavan are celebrating a major victory after winning the Giant Pumpkin Contest at Morton’s Pumpkin Fest this past Wednesday. Their massive entry tipped the scales at 1,086 pounds, earning the local growers a championship trophy, bragging rights and a $300 cash prize.
The giant pumpkin, grown on the Dare family’s property in the scenic Venado Lake area, towered over the competition. The winning pumpkin weighed more than twice as much as the second-place entry, which came in at less than half the weight of the Dare’s champion gourd.
For the Delavan-area couple, the victory was the culmination of months of hard work, careful planning and a passion for growing oversized pumpkins. Their winning entry was produced through a cross-breeding process that combined genetics from two different championship pumpkin seeds. By blending proven bloodlines, the Dares hoped to create a pumpkin capable of competing with the best growers in the Midwest.
Their strategy paid off in impressive fashion.
Growing a pumpkin weighing more than half a ton requires a tremendous commitment. Throughout the summer growing season, the Dare family’s pumpkin plants demanded constant attention on their rural property. During periods of peak growth, the plants consumed upwards of 50 gallons of water each day to sustain their accelerated development.
The result was a pumpkin that dominated the field at Morton, a community widely recognized as the “Pumpkin Capital of the World.” While many growers dream of reaching the 1,000-pound mark, the Dares surpassed that milestone comfortably with their 1,086-pound winner.
Remarkably, the championship pumpkin is not even the largest specimen growing in the Dare family’s patch.
According to the couple, another pumpkin on their Venado Lake property is more than twice the size of the Morton-winning entry. However, despite its immense size, that pumpkin was unable to compete in this year’s Morton contest because it did not meet the festival’s color requirements.
Contest rules require all pumpkins entered in the Giant Pumpkin Contest to be at least 75 percent orange. The Dares’ largest pumpkin, while significantly bigger, lacks the required coloration and was therefore disqualified from entry.
Rather than being discouraged, Tim and Jessica are already looking ahead to another opportunity to showcase their growing success. The couple hopes to enter the oversized pumpkin in a competition scheduled for October in Ohio, where different contest standards may allow it to compete.
For now, the Dare family is enjoying the recognition that comes with bringing home a Giant Pumpkin Contest title. Their victory highlights not only the exceptional genetics behind their pumpkins, but also the dedication and determination required to grow a champion. And if their even larger pumpkin performs as expected later this fall, the growers from rural Delavan may soon find themselves celebrating an even bigger achievement than their winning day in Morton.
