On Thursday, May 10, third-grade students from Mrs. Gregg’s, Mrs. Taylor’s, and Mrs. Pinkham’s classes at Great Salt Bay School in Damariscotta enjoyed a springtime class trip to Pinkham’s Plantation Garden and Landscape Center on Biscay Road in Damariscotta. They were there to learn how and help prepare some 600 pumpkin seeds to be given away on Sunday, May 20 at Pinkham’s.

On May 20, “Seedling Sunday” officially kicks-off the 2018 Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta™.  On Seedling Sunday, volunteer-growers can adopt the 10-day-old Atlantic Giant Pumpkin seedlings and grow pumpkins that will become the granddaddies of the pumpkin patch. These giants will be featured as pumpkin boats in the regatta, ammunition in the unforgettable pumpkin drop, and turned into works of art and displayed on Main Street in Damariscotta and Newcastle, Maine and beyond during Pumpkinfest.

Pumpkinfest’s “guest partners” will include representatives from the Boothbay Railway Village, the Maine Maritime Museum, and Visit Freeport. Don Carrigan of Channel 6 News and his Maine Coon cat, Wally, will be there, as will be Channel 13’s Charlie Lopresti, Maine-state champion pumpkin-grower.  

Join the fun by becoming a Pumpkinfest “Squashbuckler” on Seedling Sunday, May 20 from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. or whenever the last plants have been adopted from Pinkham’s Plantation, located at 431 Biscay Road in Damariscotta. Along with your free Atlantic Giant Pumpkin plantlet, you’ll receive helpful growing instructions plus five gallons of free compost to give your seedling a healthy start. (Please bring a five-gallon container for your free super-enriched compost.) 

Notably, a minimum age for volunteer growers of eight years old will be implemented in 2018, to be consistent with Greater Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC) requirements — youth = age 8 through 15, and adult = age 16 and over

This year, Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta™ is partnering with the Boothbay Railway Village, the Maine Maritime Museum, and Visit Freeport for the second annual Maine’s Pumpkin Trail (MPT), a 60-mile long, event-filled tour of museums and festivals held between Labor Day and Halloween. To find out more about MPT, visit the MPT Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/MainePumpkinTrail/ .