Cracked Up: 750-pound Turlock pumpkin won't be carriage

The plan to turn a 750-pound pumpkin into a Cinderella carriage cracked this week. The Rev. Jim Schultz, youth and family pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Turlock, said his giant pumpkin developed a large crack after it was cleaned out and moved.

But that didn't stop more than half a dozen children from the neighborhood from having a good time while helping to pull out the pumpkin innards over the weekend.

Schultz and his little helpers, ages 2 to 13, spent more than an hour hulling the pumpkin. All of the more than 1-inch seeds will be washed, dried and stored for sale or use another year.

Over the weekend, Schultz let members of the congregation and youth groups pose with the behemoth pumpkin.

Schultz, who has been growing giant pumpkins for 15 years, plans to do it again next year. Another pumpkin grown by friend Darren Smith and his 5-year-old son is still growing in the church pumpkin patch and weighs more than 700 pounds.