This Massachusetts City Makes National Top 10 For Pumpkin Lovers–Which One?

I must confess. I've never been a huge fan of the pumpkin. Wait. Hold that thought. Let me amend that statement. I've never been a huge fan of the taste of pumpkins. They're cool to look at. They're fun to carve into a jack-o-lantern which makes them even cooler to look at:

And for whatever weird reason, although I don't like the taste of pumpkin, I absolutely love the smell of pumpkins. As in, the warm smell of a pumpkin pie baking happily in the oven. Or the aroma of a pumpkin candle. Makes me think of the holiday season. Always has. Always will.

Anyway, enough about my dislike for the taste of pumpkin. There are thousands upon thousands of people who LOVE pumpkins and everything about them. It turns out that one city in Massachusetts loves pumpkins so much, it made the top 10 list nationally!

The folks at LawnStarter, the digital marketplace for lawn care and other outdoor services, did a ranking of 2022's Best and Worst Cities for Pumpkin Lovers. I know, I know, we already missed Halloween and National Pumpkin Day, but it's still Fall, and as we all know Fall is the best time for pumpkins and pumpkin lovers!

The team at LawnStarter looked at 200 U.S. cities based on 7 key metrics of pumpkin-friendliness such as pumpkin-related events and celebrations, pumpkin-themed food and drink, number of pumpkin patches, etc.

Three cities in Massachusetts made the Top 100, but only one landed in the Top 10. And that city is...WORCESTER! Worcester did fairly well in all the metrics that were looked at, but what really put Worcester in the Top 10 at #6 was the fact that Worcester came in second nationally for having the Most Pumpkin Patches. Only Portland, Oregon had more.

Also, two other Bay State cities landed in the top 100. Boston was ranked at #46 and the reason Boston made the top 50 is because Beantown did very well in two key metrics. Boston landed the #1 spot in the metric for Most Bakeries Per Square Mile and #2(just behind San Francisco) for Most Coffee Shops Per Square Mile.

And just squeaking into the Top 100 at #99, Western Massachusetts' very own city of Springfield! The only other city in New England to make the cut was Providence, Rhode Island which did very well, ranking at #26!

Several cities from our neighbor to the west made the top 100 as well. New York City performed better than Worcester, landing at #3, with Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse also making it in.

Here are the official Top 10 of 2022's Best Cities for Pumpkin Lovers:

1. Portland, Oregon
2. Los Angeles, California
3. New York, New York
4. Miami, Florida(????)
5. Seattle, Washington
6. Worcester, Massachusetts
7. Las Vegas, Nevada(again, ????)
8. Chicago, Illinois
9. Aurora, Illinois
10. San Diego, California

And since we celebrated the best cities, we may as well go ahead and shame the worst. Here are 2022's Top 10 Worst Cities For Pumpkin Lovers:

1. Macon, Georgia
2. Laredo, Texas
3. Kansas City, Kansas
4. Fayetteville, North Carolina
5. Newport News, Virginia
6. Columbus, Georgia
7. Brownsville, Texas
8. Anchorage, Alaska
9. Port St. Lucie, Florida
10. Augusta, Georgia

Is anyone surprised that most of the worst cities are located in the south? By and large, the southern climate is not very accommodating for growing pumpkins. It's also funny that two cities in Texas made the worst list. You see, the Official State Squash of Texas is the Pumpkin!

Whether you're a fan of pumpkin pie, pumpkin-flavored coffee, pumpkin-flavored beer, or pumpkin EVERYTHING, check out the LawnStarter ranking at their website here.