Restaurateur/farmer reaps an over 100-pound pumpkin

In all the years restaurateur, Yvonne Thomas has farmed crops in her backyard, this is the first time that her harvest has ever yielded a pumpkin weighing more than 100 pounds.

Passers-by caught a glimpse of Thomas’ prized pumpkin in all it’s glory yesterday just outside her restaurant, Stoplight at Paul’s Avenue.

Some were so stunned by the size of the vegetable that they whipped out their phones to document the moment, while others verbalised their awe, claiming that the pumpkin’s size must be due to volcanic ash from La Soufriere’s volcanic eruption this year.

“I always plant pumpkin because a time I went and harvest and I pick all 30,40 pumpkins but not big ones, small ones. This is the biggest…,” the Glamorgan resident told SEARCHLIGHT about her 104 lb pumpkin.

Thomas also said that there were other big pumpkins in her garden waiting to be harvested and growing just as big.

She planted these seeds in July and had spotted this particular one growing very big so she kept an eye on it but left it for quite some time to become full.

“It get big very fast…I didn’t pick it — you see when I go home, I always look over and it big how it did dey kinda hanging down so I’m always looking to see how its doing,” the restaurant owner explained.

It was last week that she noticed it had moved from its usual spot and when she went for a closer look, the mammoth pumpkin had separated slightly from the stem.

It took her son and grandson and a sack to lift and transport the pumpkin into her home.

But Thomas does not believe that volcanic ash is the reason for the size of the pumpkin as she has harvested fruits and vegetables before that were bigger than usual in size.

She also said that the soil in her area seems to be very fertile.

At Stoplight, many of the raw ingredients used in the dishes are harvested from Thomas’ backyard.

It will be no different with this pumpkin.

“We utilise everything. Everything that comes from the land, we utilise here,” the woman told SEARCHLIGHT.

So this huge pumpkin will be used in potato and pumpkin pies, steamed vegetables, steamed pumpkin and for buss up shot and roti.

“Me does see them things on Facebook but not in SVG! And I’m a farmer,” one passer-by said yesterday.

Another claimed, “that pumpkin break world record”.

Some have even made requests for seeds from the pumpkin.