All hail ‘Farmer Mike,’ the Bay Area’s preeminent pumpkin carver

All hail ‘Farmer Mike,’ the Bay Area’s preeminent pumpkin carver

You’d think it would take intense concentration to carve a 300-pound pumpkin with a Buck knife in front of a crowd keenly judging your speed and skill. But when you’ve been doing it for nearly four decades, as Farmer Mike has, it comes pretty easy. Heck, you might even have time for some light-hearted fun. “I’ll look into the crowd, and I’ll see somebody,” says Farmer Mike, nickname of San Jose’s Mike Valladao. “It’s funny because I’m staring at…