This Man Grows Pumpkins That Weigh a TON, Halloween - Haunted Attractions and The Man In The Glass Coffin
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2021
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Joe Jutras shares how he broke the record in 2017 for the largest giant green squash ever grown coming in at 2118lbs; Halloween historian Lisa Morton is going to be unpacking the history of Haunted Attractions (AKA: Halloween Haunted House) which is directly tied into today’s practice of Trick-or-Treating; Chris Siriano tells the curious story about Benjamin Purnell, whom was sealed in a glass coffin in the House of David and how his coffin was robbed.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
Time Codes:
00:00 - This Man Grows Pumpkins That Weigh a TON
23:00 - Halloween - Haunted Attractions
35:00 - The Man In The Glass Coffin
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, and you're listening to our Halloween special. |
| 0:19.5 | And what's more associated with Halloween than pumpkins? |
| 0:23.3 | Today we have the story of competitive pumpkin grower Joe Jutris. |
| 0:27.8 | Joe is a retired cabinet maker from Rhode Island. |
| 0:30.6 | Since his retirement, he has dedicated most of his time |
| 0:33.7 | to growing giant fruits and vegetables. |
| 0:37.1 | In 2017, he broke the record for the largest green |
| 0:40.9 | squash ever grown, coming into 218 pounds. Here's Joe with his story. I've been growing |
| 0:50.1 | giant vegetables now for the last 25 years. |
| 0:58.9 | Got started years ago just by accident. |
| 1:02.1 | I started growing vegetables in my backyard. |
| 1:03.8 | I threw in a giant pumpkin seed. |
| 1:05.7 | I grew it to 124 pounds. |
| 1:07.6 | And from then on, I was hooked. |
| 1:13.6 | A couple of years later, I got hooked up with a gentleman here in Rhode Island. His name is John Castellucci. |
| 1:15.6 | He's like the godfather of pumpkin growing here in New England. |
| 1:19.6 | He started in the early 90s. |
| 1:22.6 | He had great success, real gentleman, helped anybody that wanted to learn how to grow pumpkins. |
| 1:28.3 | So my friend Steve Sferri and I, we spent a lot of time in his house just drinking some beers |
| 1:34.3 | and learning how to grow pumpkins. |
| 1:36.3 | From then on, we just got hooked and enjoyed growing, met people from all over the world. |
| 1:42.3 | This hobby attracts people from all strains of life, from cabinet makers to scientists. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.