Pumpkin – sometimes with spice, sometimes on its own – will be the star of more than a dozen foods and drinks at the Circleville Pumpkin Show.
From pumpkin doughnuts to pumpkin burgers, the reason for the annual four-day festival isn't forgotten at its food booths. There are even two kinds of pumpkin pies: the one you're thinking of and pizza.
Some of the pumpkin foods might sound unconventional to those outside of Circleville, but in the Pickaway County city where pumpkins have been celebrated since 1903, they're as much a part of the festivities as the biggest pumpkin competition and Miss Pumpkin Show.
The Circleville Pumpkin Show takes place from Oct. 21 to 24 on downtown streets of the community 25 miles south of Columbus.
"Every morning of
the show, I have my pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin sausage," said Jenny Rhoads, a spokeswoman for the event. "I think they're all pretty traditional."
Pumpkin foods at the Circleville Pumpkin Show
Food sales at the Circleville Pumpkin Show are divided among businesses and community groups, the latter of which use them to raise money for their various projects and causes.
Pumpkin chili sales by the Circleville Sunrise Rotary Club are its biggest fundraiser, said member Anthony Neff. His fellow Rotarians divide cooking, cleaning and transport chores, and all take a shift or two in the booth on show days. Neff isn't sure just how long the club has been making and selling chili at the show ("plenty of years"), but he has a few other numbers at the ready: The 360 gallons of chili planned for 2026 will include 540 pounds of ground beef and 110 pounds of puréed pumpkin.
"We have a lot of people come to us and say it's not the Pumpkin Show until they get their pumpkin chili," Neff said. "It's pretty good, if I do say so myself."
As of Oct. 12, Rhoads said she hadn't heard of any pumpkin foods on the menu this year. The expected lineup includes those pumpkin burgers (they're more like sloppy joes), pumpkin soups and the Rotary Club's pumpkin chili, as well as more expected sweet offerings such as cookies, cake, cream puffs, ice cream, milkshakes, waffles and fudge.
And, of course, the pumpkin doughnuts that draw people to Circleville throughout the fall. More than 100,000 will be sold during show days, but here's a tip: They're sold year-round at Lindsey's Bakery, which has been selling them since 1950.
Let's go back to that pumpkin pizza...
Lindsey's also is the keeper of another one of the Circleville Pumpkin Show's annual traditions. It once again will be showing off a massive pumpkin pie that's made with 795 pounds of pumpkin, 60 dozen eggs, 360 pounds of sugar and similarly copious amounts of other ingredients. It takes 15 people to mix it up and 10 hours to bake.
It set a world record in 2006 that was eclipsed in 2010 by a pumpkin festival in the northwestern Ohio village of New Bremen. That one was 20 feet in diameter, and Circleville's annual pie is 14 feet around.
It's 6 feet across, according to Rhoads. "I remember during social distancing I used that for a reference," she said.
Pumpkin Show attendees are expected to buy about 23,000 normal-sized pumpkin pies over its four days. And another 800 pumpkin pies in pizza form will be sold by Circleville's Heritage Church of the Nazarene.
The dessert pizzas are topped with pumpkin purée, cinnamon sugar and a blend of mozzarella and provolone cheeses. A little cinnamon sugar goes on top before baking for a caramelized crunch, and a little more goes on afterward for a sweet finish.
"It's like a volcano. That cheese just pops up out of that cinnamon sugar," said Mike Starkey, who has helped his church with its effort since the late 1980s.
The 12-inch pizzas are sold by the slice or as whole pies. The church also sells pumpkin soda, which Starkey described as a pumpkin spice ginger ale.
Follow Dispatch dining reporter Bob Vitale on Instagram at @dispatchdining. You can reach him directly at rvitale@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Burgers, pizzas and pies fill the Circleville Pumpkin Show menu
