> What: Pumpkin Smash.> When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1> Where: Crabtree Farms, 1000 E. 30th St.> Admission: Free with a donation of nonperishable food items for the Chattanooga Area Food Bank or $2 per person without food items> Phone: 423-493-9155.> Email: info@crabtreefarms.org
You’ve seen pumpkins fly through the air on Science Channel’s “Punkin Chunkin.” Now you can clock your own pumpkin’s hang time on Saturday, Nov. 1, when Crabtree Farms hosts its Pumpkin Smash fall festival.
The folks at Crabtree Farms invite everyone to bring their leftover Halloween pumpkins to the urban farm where they’ll be launched from a trebuchet by competitors in the pumpkin chunking.
Pumpkin chunking – or punkin chunkin, as it is more commonly rhymed – is the sport of launching large pumpkins into the air via trebuchets, those tall catapults that bring to mind medieval attacks on fortresses. Building a successful trebuchet requires a lot of science and engineering skill to create a shot strong enough to turn a unwieldy pumpkin into a projectile. Where the pumpkin lands, or smashes, is marked for distance. The pumpkin going the greatest distance wins.
This sport has become so popular there is a World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association. The group holds an annual competition in Delaware, which is taped for airing on The Science Channel.