The Giant Pumpkin Festival - Part 2

I was attending the Giant Pumpkin Festival at the St. Lawrence County fairgrounds in Gouverneur, New York (see Part 1, posted yesterday) and walking along a row of vendors:

There were handcrafted birdhouses and other wood crafts:

Signs and wooden pumpkin boxes:

And of course - more pumpkins. No giants yet, though:

I walked over to see the crane which would drop the giant pumpkin (filled with numbered golf balls) at 3:00. I wouldn't be there long enough to see it drop, though:

I walked by the chicken barbecue. It sure smelled good!

And then I entered the barn with the giant pumpkins. There were a few, but that's when I realized I shouldn't have arrived on the morning of opening day because many of the giant pumpkins hadn't yet arrived. But there were some, so I walked around to see them:

Outside the barn, a big (but certainly not giant) pumpkin had just arrived and was being unloaded and tagged with the grower's name:

A forklift hauled the pumpkins into the barn:

These were some seriously big pumpkins and I'd sure be proud to have grown one of them. But I missed seeing the super-giants, which hadn't yet arrived:

Well, these two were pretty darn big, but there were surely much bigger ones coming:

I didn't stay long, but I enjoyed the rural geniality. Next year I'll go later in the day:

The Giant Pumpkin Festival - Part 1

You may remember that I attended the Giant Pumpkin Festival last year but couldn't find the miniature horses. This year, I parked right next to the ring where the children were handling the tiny steeds:

Most were young children, but there were some older kids also. The mini-horses were perfectly behaved and did everything they were asked:

I gathered, from listening to the announcer, that many of these little horses belonged to a local stable and may not have met their youthful handlers before. Nevertheless, they were certainly perfectly behaved and brought a lot of smiles to the children and their parents:

There was a series of activities, but my favorite was the costuming of both horses and handlers:

And then I moved on to the bouncy castle:

This was the third annual Giant Pumpkin Festival, held at the St. Lawrence fairgrounds in Gouverneur, New York. I arrived early on the first day but vendors had already set up shop, beginning with this "Win Your Own Mini-Tractor" lottery:

There were pumpkins, but no giant ones yet:

An entire row of vendor booths:

High Peaks Winery:

Colorful crafts:

And food. There was still more to see, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

The Great Weighing O' The Pumpkins

I was at the Giant Pumpkin Festival (see yesterday's post) and all the time I was there, I noticed huge pumpkins being hauled back and forth on pallets:

I soon discovered that they were bringing them, one at a time, into the commercial building to be officially weighed:

The tractor brought a new pumpkin over to the barn, where the forklift lifted it with straps and carried it in to be weighed. While the pumpkin was on the scale, the tractor returned the most recently weighed pumpkin and brought over a new one. It was quite an operation:

They saved the biggest pumpkins for last:

The winner, the biggest by far, officially weighed 1018 pounds:

This was the winning pumpkin's grower, posing beside his prized produce with his son:

When all the pumpkins were weighed, they were set outside with their weight and growers' names attached. Lots of families were taking photos with the giant pumpkins:

And giant they were indeed:

The second place pumpkin weighed 698 pounds:


625 pounds:

554 pounds:

484 pounds. But it was time for me to head for home. I never got to see the prizes awarded for biggest and ugliest pumpkins, and I never got to see the giant pumpkin drop. Well, there's always next year:

The Giant Pumpkin Festival

I'd noticed the publicity for a Giant Pumpkin Festival and, when the day arrived, drove to the fairgrounds in the town of Gouverneur. I parked, and began walking toward the action. The first activity I encountered was a children's bouncy castle and popcorn machine. The woman in orange was, I soon discovered, the master of ceremonies and I would be encountering her wherever I went:

But of course my first stop was to see the giant pumpkins:

There were food venders:

And a commercial exhibit with lots of venders of various, local wares:

One barn was devoted to giant pumpkins and folks were taking photographs beside them. It really did help to appreciate the size of those big, orange fruits to have people beside them:

They were huge, but not always orange:

A local country band was playing:

And the mid-size pumpkins were displayed outside. That crane you see would be used later for the giant pumpkin drop (and splat):

These men were hollowing a pumpkin for the big drop. It was to be filled with numbered golf balls and people were buying tickets. The three golf balls which flew the farthest when the pumpkin hit the ground would earn prizes for the folks who took a chance:

There was chainsaw carving:

And a pumpkin pie eating contest, with eleven contestants of all ages. The winner would be whoever ate an entire pumpkin pie the fastest. The emcee, the ubiquitous woman in orange, was teasing them by saying the winner's prize would be only a pumpkin pie and a bottle of water:

This man was the winner. Apparently the emcee was not joking, as she gave him a pumpkin pie, a bottle of water and a tee-shirt. I hope he also got some cash, but I didn't see any. There was also, of course, a weigh-in for the heaviest pumpkins, but I'll post about that tomorrow: