Saturday 6 October 2018

What a Whopper!

One of the most hotly contested rivalries at Markham Fair is the 'biggest pumpkin' competition. This year the heaviest pumpkin was won with a giant weighing 193 pounds. That's it on the left in the photo, the green one with the blue ribbon
The heaviest squash, the huge yellowish white one with the red First Prize ribbon, weighed in at a whopping 637 pounds. That's 289 kg for those who prefer metric.

The grower, Carl Niemeyer, said he bought the pumpkin seeds on line from the provincial winner of the largest pumpkin in Manitoba. 
Growing the pumpkin was easy, but transporting it to the Fair presented a challenge. Twelve people lifted it onto a skid before loading it onto his pickup truck for delivery to the Fair.
The secret to growing a giant pumpkin? He put lots of chicken manure down in the spring, and as the vine grew, he pruned off all the smaller pumpkins so the granddaddy of them all could receive all the nutrition.
If you're interested, the giant pumpkin is for sale at a local farmer's market for $200.00.... that's Canadian dollars of course.  Pumpkin pie, anyone?

Lots more giant vegetables on show too. These are Savoy cabbage. My favourite. I wish I had taken a pic of the largest potato weighing over 3 pounds. You could make a lot of french fries with that!

I'm not doing very well with my resolution to blog every day in October, and we're only 6 days into the month. Oooops.

11 comments:

  1. My brother did that one year. I can't recall how big his got.

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  2. I do love looking at healthy vegies - giant or otherwise. And before dawn am already thinking about the days menu.

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  3. That potato is mighty big. It weighs more than the bag of small ones we buy.

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  4. I'm pretty evenly matched with that pumpkin.

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  5. Giant pumpkins are a “thing” here too. The largest this year was over 1700 lbs. Incredible!

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  6. That would be fun. I don't recall ever actually seeing one.

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  7. OMG! It's astounding when veg weigh more than the person who grew it ☺ Did anyone buy the winning pumpkin and squash Shammi?

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  8. How big! How do people cut such a big pumpkin? I wonder how the taste of the giant pumpkins is. I like pumpkin soup with “miso”.

    Thank you for your kind words and concern about the recent super typhoons in my country. While enduring the typhoons every weekend from mid-September,I found some signs of autumn. But temperaature soared with the sunny skies after the last typhoon; 30 degrees C the other day, 27 yesterday and today. I like chestnuts both roasted and boiled. My favorite recipe is “kuri gohan”, or chestnut rice.

    Yoko

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  9. I think these huge pumpkins are amazing. I wonder if they are as good when they are so big.
    That Savoy Cabbage is beautiful, love the textures.
    I seem to be going in spurts with my blogging lately.
    Sometimes I really just don't feel inspired.

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  10. Interesting the different tactics used to grow the big pumpkins. Pumpkin pie filling is a favorite of mine. Circleville, Ohio USA in the state where I lived many years I recall billing themselves as having the largest pumpkins in our area.

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  11. So good to see the vegetables, and I love pumpkin season!
    I also love savoy cabbage, enjoyed seeing your photographs.

    All the best Jan

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