Half Moon Bay: California's Pumpkin Capitol

If you can find Half Moon Bay on your GPS, or even on an old-fashioned paper map, you'll find the pumpkin epicenter of Northern California, and, with no further directions, you'll stumble on all the pumpkins you could possibly want. You can cut out the middleman by visiting farms like Pastorini's, on highway 92, which offer pick'em yourself pumpkin deals.

If you approach Half Moon Bay from north or south along highway 1 (coming from San Francisco or Santa Cruz, respectively), you'll pass similar farms every few miles, with visitor-oriented pumpkin activities that will satisfy the most committed pumpkin lovers. Corn mazes, pie-and-coffee stands and seafood restaurants are also so numerous you couldn't possibly miss them.

Last year's Art & Pumpkin Festival, the 38th annual, was on the weekend of October 17-18 and included all manner of pumpkin-related crafts, food and drink, a haunted barn, a costume contest, a scarecrow contest, a Safeway-sponsored coloring contest for the kids, tours, and the Titanic Pumpkins Weigh-in.

The Festival began in 1971 when the city council appointed the Main Street Beautification Committee and charged them with the responsibility of creating an event that could take full advantage of the area's pumpkin-growing capabilities by creating an "old-fashioned downtown festival" which would attract visitors and pumpkin enthusiasts from around the state. By all accounts, their efforts have been successful.

My wife, who once lived in the area, alerted me to this phenomenon when we first got together, and I was at first nonplussed. But, once we arrived, I understood what was going on out there. For one thing, there are pumpkins and other fresh garden produce of all shapes, sizes and varieties as far as the eye can see, once you cross the short distance from highway 280 (the quickest but least-scenic approach) and drop down into the coastal plain, with its rich alluvial soil and pumpkin-friendly climate.

The one problem I would advise people to be aware of is that this event has become so popular in recent years you probably won't be able to find a motel room with 20 miles of the bay. However, if you are staying in San Francisco or San Jose, the drive is only an hour or two, unless you stop at one or more of the many easily accessible beaches along the way. Once you're there and parked, there are no shortages of pumpkins, pumpkin lovers, or pumpkin related activities. October is really the best time of year along the California coast, with reliably warm weather, light winds and minimal fog. Rain is always a possibility, but the storms are generally brief, leaving the countryside glazed and refreshed rather than soaked.

On my first visit, we filled the trunk of the car with our own choice of pumpkins for about $30, then enjoyed a fine seafood dinner at the fabulous Ketch Joanne restaurant just north of the town center. Ketch Joanne is worth a visit all by itself. The steaks, seafoods and burgers are served up just the way you like them, and you can order wines or cocktails from the attached bar. After dinner, a stroll along the harbor can be a pleasant way to relax before heading home or to a motel room.

Although only 30,000 people attended that 1971 fair, it has become an important part of Half Moon Bay's yearly economy, with many farms earning a large part of their yearly income from the festival weekend and the weeks immediately before and after, leading up to Halloween.

And it's not just about the pumpkins. Just about every business in town has figured out a way to offer something, from linguisa sandwiches to corn dogs, sure to delight visitors of all ages. Indeed, I could get by without pumpkins, but still found interesting things to do during the visit, while my wife, a self-described pumpkin fanatic, was close to ecstatic while working her way across the fields of gigantic orange globes, searching for those special specimens which spoke to her.

Columbus Day is the official beginning of pumpkin season, when the local Safeway market hosts its World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off. It's not unusual for pumpkins weighing half a ton to show up for this contest. Meanwhile, the rest of the town goes into high gear, offering everything from pumpkin ice cream to pumpkin ravioli, and visitors move about in a happy, pumpkin-oriented daze of good old family fun.

The following weekend is the traditional date for the Festival.