PALMYRA, Maine — What's pink, edible, and grown to help support breast cancer research? That would be Porcelain Doll pink pumpkins.
"Raised over $5,000 for breast cancer research," says Pat White, who's on his fourth year of growing and selling the pink pumpkins.
White added these are not an easy crop to cultivate. Hungry groundhogs and deer make it challenging, but so does Mother Nature.
"It's hard to grow them in this area. It's 125 days, so I have to plant them early," White says.
He got the idea to start growing them years ago while flipping through a seed catalog. Then White went to his friend Jo-Ann Brown for help.
"He (White) said 'they have pink pumpkins and I want someone that will take the money and put it where it needs to go,'" recalled Brown.
Brown didn't hesitate to say yes. Cancer has a history in her family.
“I lost a dad to bone cancer, I lost a sister to breast cancer, I have a sister that is a survivor of breast cancer, I have another sister that has had lung cancer is a survivor and a brother that got colon cancer and is a survivor," said Brown.
She says it's incredible to see all the pink pumpkins on her neighbors front porches every year.
This fall, all of the money earned from the pink pumpkins will go to the Champion the Cure Challenge, put on by Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center.
The pumpkins are on sale now, but an official event to sell them will be on Saturday, September 26th from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1178 Main St. in Palmyra.