by Pamela Plimpton
Beaumont-Wilshire sisters Alice and Julia Ibarra, ages nine and seven, respectively, have grown giant pumpkins in their front yard on NE Alameda near 41st Avenue for the second year in a row. The girls started the seeds for this year’s pumpkins inside in March, moving the plants outside as the weather warmed. The result of their effort speaks for itself: two of the four pumpkins they’ve grown weigh over 200 pounds — they estimate the largest one weighs 250 pounds.
The family started the project as a way to reconnect with and meet new neighbors following the isolation imposed by the COVID years. Many people have passed by the yard and commented on the pumpkins.
“We’ve met more of our neighbors in the last three months than we have in the nearly 10 years prior,” says the girls’ father, Erick Ibarra.
Alice and Julia plan to harvest the seeds from the two largest pumpkins and give them away to their neighbors, so they can grow giant pumpkins, too.
Pamela Plimpton, a B-W resident since 1980, retired as a professor of English in 2020. Her interests include reading, writing, gardening, and singing with a community chorale. She and her husband enjoy playing golf, traveling, and grandparenting their granddaughter.