Marion third-grader brings in the pumpkins

By SHEILA G. KELLEY

News editor

Charlie Brown isn’t the only one looking forward to Halloween and pumpkins.

Shelby Summervill, 8, of Marion, and her family — mom, Amy, dad Tim and brother, Trent, 5 — have taken their pumpkin-growing hobby and turned it into a college education fund.

“Tim and I have been planting pumpkins and gourds for about 10 years,” Amy Summervill said.

Shelby and Amy sold pumpkins Saturday in Florence. She and her brother get a small percentage of sales and the rest goes into their college funds.

The family planted 200 mounds of seeds this year on their ½- to ¾-acre lot south of Marion.

Not only are there round, orange pumpkins, there are colored, tiny, patterned, and very large pumpkins.

Summervill’s husband said some bigger varieties weighed between 70 and 80 pounds while the baby ones barely tip the scales at a couple of pounds.

“They are all pumpkins even if they don’t look alike, just different varieties,” Summervill said.

“They did really well this year, despite the drought,” she said. “We had to do more watering than usual since it was so dry but luckily we were able to pump water from my mom’s pond.”

They raised gourds too but the crop didn’t do well this year, she said.

Summervill estimates they harvested around 300 pumpkins this year.