Giants among us

Despite the poor growing season this year, Rainy River’s Giant Pumpkin Festival still boasted some whoppers Saturday.
With only about half the entries of a normal year, the 25 that were entered were almost all of substantive size.
The first really big pumpkin to get weighed was that of Rainy River’s Cory Lindal’s, which tipped the scale at 490 pounds.
He held the lead for quite a while while the weigh-master, Guy Arpin, and his loading crew purposely left the last few big ones until the end to keep the crowd of about 200 in suspense.
Lindal was dethroned from atop the pumpkin patch by a 505-pounder weighed in by Margie Johnson of Clearbrook, Mn.
But her reign at the top was short-lived when, two pumpkins later, Don Cronk of Thunder Bay reclaimed the prestigious Golden Hoe Award with a 579-pound pumpkin.
Cronk has been on the podium several times since his first title in 1999 with a 544-pound entry. Since then, he was third in both 2002 and last year with 682-pound and 724-pound monsters, respectively.
Kyle Paulson of Pinewood, Mn. won the Golden Hoe Award last year with a festival record 765-pound entry.
Cronk said he still grows his giant pumpkins in an old outdoor rink and, despite the poor growing conditions this year, managed to get a prize-winner.
He added the ironic part about this year’s winner was, “This one is the one I spent the least amount of attention on.”
Cronk had another pumpkin at the other end of the rink that he babied more, but this one was bigger in the end. “I used a little fertilizer [fish emulsion and kelp] and controlled the water,” he revealed.
In addition to the Golden Hoe, Cronk won $1,000 cash as well as the farthest grower award.
Johnson, meanwhile, was happy with her $500 windfall for finishing second.
Last year, she was on her way to Rainy River on the wrong weekend with a pumpkin that would have landed her in the record books here.
She made it to Kehlier and had stopped. Someone from Rainy saw her and asked where she was going with the pumpkin. She told them to the festival in Rainy River.
They informed her that she was a week late (the festival had changed weekends with the Rainy River Walleye Tournament).
So she took her pumpkin to a festival in Rolland, Man., where it weighed in at 1,009 pounds.
This year’s third-place finisher was Lindal, who spent a lot of time babying his nearly 500-pound pumpkin. He ran heat tapes in the ground and heat lamps when necessary.
He would have won a prize for closest grower if they had one, since he lives just around the corner from the park. But he did win rookie-of-the-year honours, taking home the Silver Watering Can Award.
Top junior grower went to Bryce Godin of Rainy River with a 394-pound entry. His sister, Kenzie, came in second with a 358-pounder while third went to Kyle Olson of Rainy River (345 pounds).
They received $50, $25, and $10, respectively.
The Banzai Award (smallest pumpkin) went to Inge Szeder of Emo. Her pumpkin did not register on the scale.
The hidden weight was 83 pounds, which netted Archie Wiersema the $100 prize for his 70-pounder.
The ugliest pumpkin was won by Jessica Marken of Baudette while Kyle Olson had the most attractive one.
Riverview’s Grade 1/2 class won top honours in the Best Decorated Pumpkin category, followed by Skylar Arpin in second and Lindsay Bourre, Jessie Bourre, Tylan Nault, and Ella Rose Henderson in third.
Bob Locking won the Guess the Weight prize (the mystery pumpkin was 182 pounds).
The Best Pumpkin Dessert went to Dorothy Wiersema while Inge Szeder was honoured for the Best Pumpkin Pie. The latter also won the Best Vegetable Display.
Winners in the Pumpkin Seed-Spitting were Guy Arpin in the adult division (9.79 m), Peter Soptiuck in the youth division (6.7 m), and Josh Halverson in the child category (7.0 m).
Jessie Bodnarchuk had the tallest sunflower (149.5 inches tall) while Olga Sirman won first place for the oddest overall vegetable, followed by Inge Szeder and Penny Shumaker.