Giants among us

Ken Johnston
Editor

Despite the poor growing season Rainy River’s Giant Pumpkin Festival still boasted some whoppers last 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 was 490 lbs. 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.
He was dethroned from the top of the pumpkin patch by Margie Johnson’s (Clearbrook, Minnesota) 505 pounder. 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 lb. pumpkin.
Cronk has been on the podium several times since his first title in 1999. In 99 he won with a 544 lbs. pumpkin. Since then he was third in both 2002 and last year with 682 and 724 pound monsters. Last year was won by Kyle Paulson of Pinewood, MN. and set a festival record at 765 lbs.
Cronk said that 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 said that the ironic part about this year’s winner is, “This one is the one I spent the least amount of attention on.” He had another one at the other end of the rink that he babied more but this one was bigger. “I used a little fertilizer (fish emulsion and kelp) and controlled the water.” In addition to the Golden Hoe, Cronk won $1,000 cash and the farthest grower award.
Second place finisher Margie Johnson was happy with her $500 finish. However, 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 walleye tournament. So she took her pumpkin to a festival in Rolland, Manitoba where it weighed in at 1,009 lbs.
Third Place finisher was Rainy River’s Cory 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.
Top junior grower went to Bryce Godin of Rainy River with a 394 lb. pumpkin. His sister came in second. Kenzie’s pumpkin weighed 358 lbs. Third went to Kyle Olson of Rainy River with 345 lbs. They received $50, $25 and $10 respectively.
Rookie of the Year was Cory Lindal who received the Silver Watering Can Award.
The Banzai Award (smallest pumpkin) went to Inge Szeder of Emo. Her pumpkin did not register on the scale.
Hidden weight was 83 lbs. Archie Wiersema won the $100 prize for his 70 pounder.
The Ugliest Pumpkin was won by Jessica Marken of Baudette.
The Most Attractive Pumpkin was won by Kyle Olson of Rainy River.
Best Decorated Pumpkin prizes were as follows:
1st: Riverview Grade 1/2 class
2nd: Skylar Arpin
3rd: Lindsay Bourre, Jessie Bourre, Tylan Nault and Ella Rose Henderson.
Guess the Weight was won by Bob Locking. The mystery pumpkin was 182 lbs.
Best Pumpkin Dessert was won by Dorothy Wiersema.
Best Pumpkin Pie was won by Inge Szeder.
The Pumpkin Seed Spitting Contest winners were as follows:
Adult: Guy Arpin (9.79 m)
Youth: Peter Soptiuck (6.7 m)
Child: Josh Halverson (7 m)
Best Vegetable Display was won by Inge Szeder.
Tallest Sunflower was won by Jessie Bodnarchuk (149.5 inches tall).
Oddest overall vegetables:
1st: Olga Sirman
2nd: Inge Szeder
3rd: Penny Shumaker