Victoria woman grows 323-pound pumpkin, shares journey on social media
While Carmen Spagnola puts a lot of effort into making and tending to her flower garden, the same couldn’t be said for growing her first pumpkin.
"It felt like this random miracle that just happened," Carmen smiles.
Despite doing very little, the pumpkin grew relatively big.
"I’m so in awe of what nature can do," she says.
So Carmen started searching for what she could do to help a gourd grow even larger next time, and found a picture of record-breaking pumpkin producer Dave Chan.
"It looked like he’d won the Super Bowl or something," Carmen smiles, pointing to the photo of Dave with his arms raised in triumph beside an almost 2,000-pound pumpkin.
After contacting him for advice, Carmen went to work on a pumpkin patch that quickly seemed to devour her driveway.
"It just became this relationship that I couldn’t stop tending," she says.
Carmen measured the pumpkin daily, while her husband Ruben calculated its estimated weight and captured her reaction on camera.
The roughly 323-pound pumpkin is shown.
While the pumpkin grew 10 to 20 pounds a day, Carmen’s exuberance also increased.
"All the love and attention and care I was pouring into it was immediately paying back in dividends," Carmen smiles.
So Carmen decided to pay the positivity forward by sharing her pumpkin’s progress (and joyful reactions) on social media.
Along with the exhilarating high of the pumpkin’s rapid growth, Carmen says she experienced the terrifying low of its potentially deadly split stem.
She found solace in a soundtrack of inspiring songs from the 1980s.
"Peter Gabriel’s 'Don’t Give Up' to 'Don’t Stop Believin' by Journey," Carmen laughs.
"And when I was hot pepper spraying it, to prevent a rat from eating it, I started inhaling it, and the song that came to me was 'Take My Breath Away' by Berlin!"
Whether she’s sharing her pumpkin playlist on Spotify or pumpkin pampering on TikTok, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
"When I’m feeling joy, it’s triggering hope and possibility in other people," Carmen says. "And that’s not just a cliché, that’s neuroscience."
You see, Carmen works as a trauma therapist and calls joy "emotional nutrition."
"It’s really important that you don’t minimize or negate [joy]," Carmen says. "Whatever delights you, you should share it."
Which is why Carmen’s going to keep the gusto for gourds going and keep it growing past its current weight of 323 pounds. After harvesting this one for Halloween she’s striving to cultivate a record-breaker next year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.