Now that Halloween is over, I’m sure you are all wondering the same thing — what am I to do with all my leftover pumpkins?  Well, after extensive research* on pumpkin uses I found just the answer to this age-old question of the leftover pumpkin conundrum.  I hereby introduce you to the “World Championship Punkin’ Chunkin’ Contest” (more info here) held each year in Millsboro, Delaware.  This year it will be on Nov 2, 3 and 4.  Teams will travel from far and wide to see just how far a pumpkin can be chunked or who can chunk one with the most accuracy.  Each team brings their own launching device, whether a catapult or a trebuchet or something original.  In fact a world record was set back in 2003 when a pumpkin was launched an astonishing 4,434 feet.

“How did this all come about?” you might ask.  Well, here is a snippet from an interview with one of the Punkin’ Chunkin’ founders :

“It all started back in 1986,” said Ellsworth.  “We were playing around one day and somebody started talking about throwing pumpkins.  There had been an article in a newspaper or on television about some people throwing pumpkins at Salisbury State.  A physics class or something.  One of us said that they could throw further than someone else… The longest shot that year … was 126′.”

*no “real” research was done.  I was surfing the web and stumbled across the site.  (The website also has pictures of the various devices used, and there’s some videos in the 2004 gallery.)