Meet 'Taylor SwiftKin,' the 399-pound celebrity pumpkin with a cause in Dublin, Ohio
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Davington Drive in Dublin, Ohio is lined with trees and quiet, manicured houses. But one house this fall is playing Taylor Swift music and displays a nearly 400-pound pumpkin likeness of the singer herself, complete with hair fashioned from nine wigs and ears made from painted sweet potatoes.
The pumpkin is named “Taylor SwiftKin.”
Jeanette Paras, self-proclaimed “crazy pumpkin lady,” started carving celebrity likenesses out of pumpkins in 1988, when she created two pumpkins resembling presidential candidates George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.
Those were “baby pumpkins,” Paras said Tuesday afternoon outside her home, wearing dangling earrings to match Taylor SwiftKin. “Just 100 or so pounds.”
Since then, Paras has “pumpkinized” an influential figure each year. This year, she picked Taylor Swift for the giant pumpkin, and also did a 20-pound gourd to represent Swift's boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“Her concert tour!” Paras said of Swift’s relevance. “Her merchandising. She was just the head of the pack for the pumpkin.”
Swift the singer-songwriter also appears to have a fondness for pumpkins and fall. Her song "The Best Day" (Taylor's Version) talks about spending the day with her dad, including a visit to a pumpkin patch. "Past the pumpkin patch and the tractor rides, look now, the sky is gold..." Swift sings on the song from the "Fearless" album.
Taylor SwiftKin comes with a cause. Paras is a two-time breast cancer “thriver” — she prefers that word to the term survivor — and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Paras has partnered with the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research at the Ohio State University, and will match the first $2,500 donated to the fund at www.give.osu.edu/ParasPumpkins.
“That’s one reason I do this,” Paras said of her annual pumpkin display. “The other reason is that I think I’m funny.”
Taylor SwiftKin weighs in at 399 pounds, but she is far from the largest pumpkin that Paras has decorated. "Ted LassoKin" weighed 705 pounds in 2021, and is the largest she’s displayed on her porch.
A 1,197-pound "Carol" from "Where the Wild Things Are" was displayed on the porch of then-Ohio Governor Ted Strickland in 2009.
Taylor Swiftkin has a lighting system for viewing after dark, and also has security cameras pointed at her.
Paras paints the pumpkins in the garage each year. She first chooses the person to be feted that year and then sketches a likeness. Then, once she has her pumpkin, she goes about matching the sketch with the pumpkin’s shape and size. Finally, she paints it and adds accessories, such as hair and clothes.
Every pumpkin has its limitations. Taylor SwiftKin has a slightly concave face with an indent over the nose, but you can’t tell from the street. Paras said she designed the hair to counteract some of the roundness of the pumpkin.
In the past, some of Paras' creations have gone viral. "PumKim Jon Un," a likeness of the North Korean leader, drew media coverage around the world.
"James CordKin," a likeness of the host of the Late Late Show with James Corden, earned a two-minute mention on the national TV show. And “Trumpkin,” a likeness of former President Donald Trump that Paras created in 2015, also drew national media attention.
Paras doesn’t grow the pumpkins herself. Taylor SwiftKin was grown by Dublin residents Jason Johnson and Kurt Rossbach. Each year Paras sources pumpkins from local growers, sometimes visiting pumpkin growing contests to meet the perfect pumpkin farmer.
Growing such a massive pumpkin takes the right seeds along with tons of patience, water and monitoring, she said.
“It's a real science,” Paras said. “These growers are the nicest people.”
bagallion@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Taylor Swift is the face on a nearly 400-lb. pumpkin at a Dublin home
