Kakabeka monster tips scales at 729 pounds

Ken Johston
Editor

While the number of entries continues to taper off, the size of the pumpkins seem to be getting bigger across the board.
The 8th annual Rainy River Valley Giant Pumpkin Festival attracted 35 entries, despite the poor growing season across the region this year. That is down from the hey day of the event when nearly 100 entries tipped the scales.
A new champion was crowned and his pumpkin was a whopper! Ben Johnson of Kakabeka Falls, Ontario weighed in a 729 pound goliath. That is the third largest pumpkin ever weighed in at the RR festival.
Johnson, who was teased by organizers about giving the pumpkin steroids, said former RR pumpkin champ three years ago, Don Cronk of Thunder Bay, got him into the hobby. “It was his seeds that produced it,” said Johnson.
This was Johnson’s first year growing big pumpkins and he had two of them. The other was 563 pounds and he took that one to the Hymers Fall Fair. “I had tried before but could never get them over 200 lbs.”
Johnson said the key was lots of water. He pollinated his pumpkins in the first week of July in a 20 X 20 patch which was home to only one plant.
That is a considerably smaller area than his mentor Don Cronk uses. Cronk who came in third this year, said his patch keeps getting bigger. He uses an outdoor rink, and said it was 3,000 square feet this year.
The second place finisher, Robert Spivak, also comes from Thunder Bay. His son, Rodger, had hoped to bring a pumpkin to the festival, but the 955 pounder developed a crack about a week earlier. So it was all up to dad whose pumpkin looked bigger than Johnson’s.
However, weigh masters John Sinninghe and Guy Arpin said it really depends on how thick the walls of the pumpkin are.
Saving what they thought was the biggest for last, Spivak’s baby was weighed and the weight kept a secret. Scale operators felt that the weight could not be right and opted to take the giant off the scales, reset them and reweigh it.
Johnson’s goliath had been weighed right before Spivak’s and was topping the scales at 729 lbs. After reweighing Spivak’s the weight was confirmed at 715 lbs.; just 14 shy of Johnson’s.
At 39, Johnson, feels he still has a few good pumpkin growing years in him. “While I have won the (golden) hoe, I plan to harvest seeds from the pumpkin and keep going at it!”
Spivak vowed to try even harder next year, yearning to get his hands on the coveted Golden Hoe Award. Of course the first prize of $1,000 also serves to inspire the growers. For second, Spivak won $500. Third prize was $100.
In total there was 11,299.75 lbs. of pumpkins weighed in at the event and about 300 people on hand to watch the weigh ins.
Winning the Junior Grower category was last year’s overall champion, Levi Marken. His biggest pumpkin was 361 lbs. He also took third place with 322 lbs. Coming in second was Kyle Olson with 340 lbs.
Other winners included:
Guess the weight (300 lbs.) Damon Short
Rookie of the Year: Ben Johnson
Tallest Sunflower: Eva Desforges
Oddest overall vegetable: 1st-Francis Grant and 2nd-Grace Stang
Best vegetable display: Inge Szeder
Seed Spitting Contest: Adult-32’6” Tom Shumaker, Youth-19’1”-Jamie Webb and Child-15’2” Jacob Witherspoon.
Best Pumpkin Desert: Terri Marken
Best Pumpkin Pie: Vivian Locking
Distance Award: Robert Spivak
Banzai Award: Inge Szeder
Ugliest Pumpkin: Dorothy Wiersema
Best Decorated Pumpkin: 1st-Jessica Engels, 2nd Grade1 and 2 Riverview class, and 3rd Nicky Dorie.
Most Attractive Pumpkin: Vivian Locking
Hidden Weight (109 lbs.) Eva Desforges
Pumpkin Standings
Rank/Name/Weight
1. Ben Johnson (R) 729
2. Robert Spivak(R) 715
3. Don Cronk 682
4. Jim Marken 608
5. Margie Johnson (R) 595
6. John Milling 585
7. Henry Prenger (R) 572
8. Jim Marken 559
9. Kim McKenzie 479
10. Marlene Mose 463
11. Richard McKenzie 423
12. Dorothy Wiersema 410
13. Levi Marken (Jr) 361
14. Kyle Olson (Jr) 340
15. Levi Marken (Jr) 322
16. Gord Olson 287
17. Vivian Locking 273
18. Grace Stang 268
19. Irene Hanson 230
20.Archie Wiersema (R) 202
21.Ike Feenstra (R) 197
22. Ester Elias (R) 194
23. Tristan Shumaker (Jr) 168
24. Jordan Marken (Jr) 166
25. Jessie Feenstra (R) 157
26. Eleanor Wiersema 141
27. Eva Desforges 92
28. Damon, Nolan & Erin Short (Jr) 81
29. Casey Grant (Jr) (R) 78
30. Jessie Marken (Jr) 63
31. Nicky Dorrie (Jr) 1
32. Deb Wagner .75
33.Donna Sinninghe N/W
33. Inge Szeder N/W
(R)=Rookie grower
(Jr)=Junior grower
N/W=No weight registered