Lehi, UTAH — The pouring rain didn't stop Utah gardeners from presenting their giant pumpkins and vegetables to the scales on Saturday to determine whose was the biggest of them all.
The Harvest Festival, which was put on by the Utah Giant Pumpkin Growers and held at Thanksgiving Point, is in it's fifth year running. This year two state records were broken, including the biggest pumpkin, which weighed in at 1,731 pounds, and the biggest tomato at 4.617 pounds.
Experts agreed that this year was an especially good year for growing giant vegetables.
“We’ve had some big ones in the past, but I think it’s just the general experience of the growers is getting better and better," said Andrew Israelson, former president of the Utah Giant Pumpkin Grower Association. "...We’ve got a number of pumpkins that will go over a thousand pounds. Which means that a lot of our growers are getting more experienced and getting better and better at what they do.”
Israelson, a pumpkin grower himself, said most of the pumpkins came from local Utahns who simply enjoy the hobby.
“Almost all of these people just come from regular folks that maybe have a big backyard," he said. "I know i grew mine in my backyard, and almost everybody does the same."
He said he got into the sport when he and his friend decided to start gardening.
“And so we thought, let’s grow gardens this year, but we’ve got to have some sort of competition," he said. "We thought, well, we'll see who can grow the biggest pumpkin. And that first year he just killed me. He had this pumpkin that was just amazing. ...And after that i thought, 'Hey, i can’t let him beat me again.' So i got really serious.”
But giant pumpkins weren't the only competitors at the festival.
Dale Thurbert ran the giant vegetable stand, displayed several 10-foot squash, a 50-pound beet, and multiple large, defamed tomatoes.
"This has been a wonderful year for giant tomatoes," he said, proudly presenting his own four-and-a-half pound tomato and state-record certificate.
Thurbert, who has been involved in the competition for a few years, said the cooler weather made this year especially successful for him. He said last year out of his 1,600 tomato plants, he only had one over 2 pounds. This year, however, he had 71.
"The biggest difference for me was it was much cooler weather, and I got an extra 10-12 days of growth out of these plants. And when they’re putting on say, you know a tenth of a pound, you get one pound just like that.”
Like Israelson, Thurbert's hobby started simple.
“I took over my parents garden, and they let 24 volunteer tomato plants grow, and every single one was cherry tomatoes," he said." [After] thousands of cherry tomatoes, I swore I would never grow a little tomato again. Of course I do, but not in [those] numbers.”
Both Isrealson and Thurbert said growing giant vegetables might not be as complicated as it seems.
“Well, you have to have three things to grow a big pumpkin," Israelson said. "You have to have good seed, you have to have good soil, and good luck. There’s a lot of details that go into that, but yes, those are the main things.”
"[It's] just like you get humans real big," Thurbert said. "Feed it and feed it and feed it and feed it."
Israelson said their organization has pumpkin training seminars in the spring and sell giant pumpkin seeds for those who want to give it a try.
Although thousands of pounds of giant pumpkins could produce a pretty mean pumpkin pie, Israelson said they put their pumpkins to other uses after the contest.
On Oct. 18, they turn the pumpkins into boats and have a pumpkin regatta, or boat race, across the Sugarhouse Park Lake. Then in November they take them to HeeHaw Farms in Pleasant Grove and drop them off an 80-foot crane.
He encouraged anyone who is interested to give the hobby a try.
“They’re a ton of fun to grow," he said. "My whole family gets into it, my wife and i we get out and measure the pumpkin every night, and then she gets on the computer and she puts them on a spreadsheet, and we have charts and graphs that we compare my pumpkins to previous years, so it’s just a lot of fun."
The Harvest Festival, which was put on by the Utah Giant Pumpkin Growers and held at Thanksgiving Point, is in it's fifth year running. This year two state records were broken, including the biggest pumpkin, which weighed in at 1,731 pounds, and the biggest tomato at 4.617 pounds.
Experts agreed that this year was an especially good year for growing giant vegetables.
“We’ve had some big ones in the past, but I think it’s just the general experience of the growers is getting better and better," said Andrew Israelson, former president of the Utah Giant Pumpkin Grower Association. "...We’ve got a number of pumpkins that will go over a thousand pounds. Which means that a lot of our growers are getting more experienced and getting better and better at what they do.”
Israelson, a pumpkin grower himself, said most of the pumpkins came from local Utahns who simply enjoy the hobby.
“Almost all of these people just come from regular folks that maybe have a big backyard," he said. "I know i grew mine in my backyard, and almost everybody does the same."
He said he got into the sport when he and his friend decided to start gardening.
“And so we thought, let’s grow gardens this year, but we’ve got to have some sort of competition," he said. "We thought, well, we'll see who can grow the biggest pumpkin. And that first year he just killed me. He had this pumpkin that was just amazing. ...And after that i thought, 'Hey, i can’t let him beat me again.' So i got really serious.”
But giant pumpkins weren't the only competitors at the festival.
Dale Thurbert ran the giant vegetable stand, displayed several 10-foot squash, a 50-pound beet, and multiple large, defamed tomatoes.
"This has been a wonderful year for giant tomatoes," he said, proudly presenting his own four-and-a-half pound tomato and state-record certificate.
Thurbert, who has been involved in the competition for a few years, said the cooler weather made this year especially successful for him. He said last year out of his 1,600 tomato plants, he only had one over 2 pounds. This year, however, he had 71.
"The biggest difference for me was it was much cooler weather, and I got an extra 10-12 days of growth out of these plants. And when they’re putting on say, you know a tenth of a pound, you get one pound just like that.”
Like Israelson, Thurbert's hobby started simple.
“I took over my parents garden, and they let 24 volunteer tomato plants grow, and every single one was cherry tomatoes," he said." [After] thousands of cherry tomatoes, I swore I would never grow a little tomato again. Of course I do, but not in [those] numbers.”
Both Isrealson and Thurbert said growing giant vegetables might not be as complicated as it seems.
“Well, you have to have three things to grow a big pumpkin," Israelson said. "You have to have good seed, you have to have good soil, and good luck. There’s a lot of details that go into that, but yes, those are the main things.”
"[It's] just like you get humans real big," Thurbert said. "Feed it and feed it and feed it and feed it."
Israelson said their organization has pumpkin training seminars in the spring and sell giant pumpkin seeds for those who want to give it a try.
Although thousands of pounds of giant pumpkins could produce a pretty mean pumpkin pie, Israelson said they put their pumpkins to other uses after the contest.
On Oct. 18, they turn the pumpkins into boats and have a pumpkin regatta, or boat race, across the Sugarhouse Park Lake. Then in November they take them to HeeHaw Farms in Pleasant Grove and drop them off an 80-foot crane.
He encouraged anyone who is interested to give the hobby a try.
“They’re a ton of fun to grow," he said. "My whole family gets into it, my wife and i we get out and measure the pumpkin every night, and then she gets on the computer and she puts them on a spreadsheet, and we have charts and graphs that we compare my pumpkins to previous years, so it’s just a lot of fun."