Behind the barbed wire of the Belmont Correctional Institution in southeast Ohio’s Belmont County, inmates have grown something extraordinary: a pumpkin weighing 1,700 pounds. The colossal gourd was the centerpiece of the prison’s pumpkin patch this fall.
The patch is part of the Larry Stewart Giant Pumpkin Challenge, now in its fifth year. The tradition began in 2022 when the Mansfield Correctional Institution challenged other prisons to grow the biggest pumpkin in a yard, and it has since spread to correctional institutions across the state.
Corrections officer John Jaskowiak, who grew giant pumpkins in the early 2000s, oversees the patch and the seven incarcerated people who tend it. “They knew that I had grown them in the early 2000s, so they asked me if I would take over and grow the pumpkins here. I was glad to do it,” Jaskowiak said.
The first year, Belmont’s two plants produced a 596-pound pumpkin named Pipsqueak — and the prison won the challenge. Belmont has dominated the competition every year since, though Jaskowiak says rivals are closing in: “They’re gunning for us. It might be rough for them, but they’re trying to take Belmont out.”
