Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival

If you need a complicated method for smashing rotten pumpkins, you can’t do much better than a trebuchet.

For people who haven’t perused a medieval history book recently, the trebuchet is a giraffe-looking machine that uses the force of gravity to hurl things — 300-pound rocks, boiling oil, you name it — over the walls of ancient cities that are under siege.

This month, Dave Jordan and friends will use trebuchets to hurl pumpkins as far as possible at the sixth annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival and Chili Cook-off, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Stoweflake Resort and Spa, 1746 Mountain Road, Stowe.

Bring your own hardhat.

This is no Renaissance Fair prance in the park; no sir. Last year, one of these devices flung a 5-pound pumpkin 521 feet (nearly twice the length of a football field).

It’s an unusual spectacle, and last year more than 2,000 spectators watched the competition among 19 teams from Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

Jordan, an inventor who lives in Morrisville, built his first trebuchet when he was 14, a tabletop model for a class project. That summer, he built a bigger one. Then he built one maybe 6 feet tall that threw one heck of a snowball. When that one broke, he forgot all about the trebuchet.

Until one day he and his wife were driving by Exit 9 on Interstate 89 and saw a honking big trebuchet in a field at a Middlesex farm. Newly inspired, he soon started the Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival, starting at Boyden Farm in Cambridge and last year hopping over Mount Mansfield to Stowe.

If you’re itching to join in, now’s a good time. Dwight Snowberger, a Connecticut man who won the last two events, is working across the pond in England this fall and can’t defend his title.

Jordan figures his father, who’s 80, might be the smart choice if you’re the betting sort; his team has finished second twice. The Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts from Cambridge also field strong teams, and SUNY-Plattsburgh engineering and physics students do well, too.

The machine

A trebuchet uses gravity to power its throws. A long beam is attached to an axle. A counterweight is attached to the short end of the beam. The long end of the beam does the throwing. The trebuchet operators crank the beam around so the counterweight is as high as they can get it. When they let go — it’s best to use a trigger — the weight drops, whipping the long end of the beam and hurling the pumpkin.

Only sometimes it’s not a pumpkin. The festival has three categories for trebuchets: heavyweights, which can weigh up to 500 pounds; middleweights, which can weigh up to 100 pounds; and lightweights, which can weigh up to 20 pounds.

The heavyweights fire pumpkins that weigh at least 5 pounds, and the team has to bring its own pumpkins. However, pumpkins that weighed 5 pounds yesterday may be less than that today, so, for emergencies, Jordan has a dummy soccer ball stuffed with ballast so it weighs in at precisely 5 pounds.

Middleweights throw a 1-pound projectile, but often it’s not a pumpkin. And lightweights throw a 3-ounce tomato.

Every year, Jordan says, throwing distance has gone up 30 or 40 percent. The first year, the long throw was 139 feet. Last year, 521 feet.

“We’re approaching the theoretical limit,” Jordan says. “There’s only so much energy in there.”

To make things interesting, Jordan uses complicated formulas that adjust for weight categories, so an overall champion can be crowned. While a heavyweight won the first competition, middleweights have won the last four.

More details can be found at vtpumpkinchuckin.blogspot.com.

Chili cook-off

Now, trebuchet teams like to eat, and apparently they like to eat chili.

For $5, the public can sample each competitor’s entry and vote for first, second and third place. First place gets $100, second gets $50 and third gets $25.

To compete, bring 2 gallons of chili to the event. Competitors receive free admission to the festival.

Last year’s winner, Deb Papineau, has volunteered to run the cook-off and not compete. Registration and information: deb@debsplaceinfo.com.

Jordan’s day job

Festival organizer Dave Jordan is an inventor, and his latest product is a tennis ball machine with a video camera. “It’s the only one in the world that can see the ball and talk to you,” he says. He’s trying to market it to colleges as a training tool, and private individuals are welcome to buy their own. So far, he says, it’s been slow going.

The details

Admission is $5 for ages 5 and over, free for age 4 and under. Parking is free. No dogs or outside food or beverages are allowed at the event.

Three rounds of competitive pumpkin chuckin’ are scheduled Sept. 28, at 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30 p.m.

Awards will be presented shortly after the last round in four categories: lightweight, middleweight junior, middleweight open, and heavyweight. Each of the four winners gets a trophy and $50 cash.

The four winning teams then compete for the Grand Prize of Best Design, which is awarded to the team that throws the farthest after adjusting for their trebuchet’s height. The winner gets an extra $50 and first choice of the prizes provided by local sponsors.

The festival includes children’s activities and a bounce house. Food, beer and wine will be sold by Stoweflake Resort. Music will be provided by three bands, House Dunn, Ball Hammock and the duo Jen and John.

The festival benefits the Lamoille Family Center, which has a 38-year history of supporting families through early care, educational services, home visiting, parent education, playgrounds, child care resource and referral, youth services and emergency assistance.

Volunteers are welcome: Dave Jordan, djordan@gmavt.net, 603-630-4800.