Weekend Carved Out for Pumpkin Festival

This city has more pumpkins than Linus and Charlie Brown do.

For the sixth year, the city of Calabasas and the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce will celebrate the pumpkin--the most popular fruit of October and the city’s namesake--this weekend.

Festival organizers said 30 tons of pumpkins--calabazas in Spanish--will be trucked in and sold to festival-goers to be carved up for Halloween or baked in pies for Thanksgiving.

The two-day festival will run from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Organizers said more than 20,000 people attended the event last year, and the same number is expected this year. Proceeds go to the chamber and to several nonprofit organizations, including Ronald McDonald House and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA.

The festival will include the Great American Pumpkin Race, a Native American village, country and jazz music, as well as seed-spitting and pumpkin-eating contests and pumpkin bowling.

Participants will also have the opportunity to take a new friend home from the Agoura Hills Animal Shelter pet adoption booth, or be eligible to win a walk-on part on “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” the television series starring Jane Seymour that is filmed at the ranch.

Amateur gourmets will demonstrate recipes in Bristol Farms’ Pumpkin Cook-Off. Pumpkin breads, muffins, pies, cakes, cookies and bars are welcome in the competition; entries must be turned in by 10 a.m. Saturday.

Admission is $7.50 general, $6 for children 12 to 18, and $3.50 for children 4 to 12. Off-site parking and a shuttle will be available for $4. Information: (818) 225-2227.