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Carving a great pumpkin photo by Steve Johnson Ashland man is world-class jack-o�-lantern sculptor By Sara Murphy How much goo is inside a 774-pound pumpkin? Enough to fill a garbage can and two apple crates, says carver Scott Cully. Luckily, giant pumpkins aren�t as slimy as the little guys, he says. "Typically I try to stay away from little pumpkins," Cully says. "They�re so messy." He would know. Cully, who lives in Ashland, is a world-class pumpkin carver. Last autumn, he traveled 18,000 miles to carve giant pumpkins across the country, even sculpting one for Al and Tipper Gore�s Halloween party. Cully carved his first pumpkin of the season Saturday at the Harry and David�s store in Medford. In seven hours, he shaved off about 150 pounds from the 774-pound giant and transformed it into a lion-like gremlin. Sculpted pumpkins, he says, have a life span of just three to seven days, so it won�t be on display at the store for long. But folks who miss this creation can catch Cully carving an even larger pumpkin at the store on Oct. 28. The exact weight of that pumpkin is being kept secret because the store is planning a contest, Cully says. But he�s promising it will be significantly bigger than the Great Pumpkin on display now. "It�s a really nice pumpkin," Cully says. "I saw it in the field." Most of the year, Cully is director of orchard operations for Bear Creek Orchards. Each autumn, however, he uses his vacation to travel the country in search of giant pumpkins. "I look for pumpkins that are gnarly," Cully says. "The gnarlier the better. They start with character." His work begins at a bulbous spot on the pumpkin�s face, which becomes its nose. From there, Cully makes up his design as he goes. "This is the only thing that I carve and I only carve Halloween faces," Cully says. Many other pumpkin sculptors, he adds, also work with other media, such as ice or clay. Cully says designing the face, and talking with the people who stop by to watch his work, are his favorite parts of the job. Like most folks, scooping out the goo is not. "I see it as something I have to do before I can get to work," says Cully, who uses a garden shovel to do the dirty work. Surprisingly, Cully says he didn�t like carving pumpkins as a kid. He took up the hobby in the late 1980s, when he was a grower in Connecticut, specializing in decorative pumpkins and gourds. Before he started carving, one of Cully�s home-grown giant pumpkins landed him a spot on the Tonight Show in 1985. After several years, he stopped growing pumpkins and settled on carving. Last year, he had the honor of carving the world�s heaviest pumpkin, a 1,131-pound giant near Pittsburgh, Penn. However, it seems he�s going to lose that world record about as quickly Cinderella�s chariot turned back into a you-know-what. A new world record was set last week in a New York patch, where a pumpkin weighed in at 1,140 pounds. Sold for about $5,000, that pumpkin will be carved by another sculptor and displayed at a New York City hotel. "I had it in my grasp, I did, " Cully says. "It got pulled away from me last week." That�s the nature of the pumpkin-carving business, however. After a full day�s work � about an hour per 100 pounds, Cully says � each masterpiece lasts only a few days. "Because they rot," Cully says, "it ensures creativity for another year." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.