"Great Pumpkin" Disqualified

WAITSBURG – "When I thought of all the things that could possibly go wrong with growing a giant pumpkin, this is the last thing I would have expected," said Gayle Broom. Her group's pumpkin was the largest at the Walla Walla fair, weighing in at 195 ½ pounds, but failed to bring home a ribbon because of a (disputed) late entry.

Broom grew her first giant pumpkin, weighing 114 pounds, in 2013 and took first place in the weight class at the Walla Walla County fair. In 2014, Rebecca Whitehurst and Brayden Wood joined Broom in her pumpkin-growing efforts, and again took first place at the fair, with a gourd weighing in at 211 pounds.

This year, nine student farmers worked with Broom through the summer, learning about gardening and working to grow a true "Great Pumpkin." Six of the kids were from Dayton and three were from Waitsburg, ranging in age from 5 to 14.

Broom started the pumpkin project, now officially named the Waitsburg Youth Giant Pumpkin Growers, to teach kids to garden and grow their own organic produce. She thought raising giant pumpkins would be a fun way to do that because pumpkins are so dramatic.

This year's fair entry was grown from an Atlantic Dill Giant seed and weighed 195 ½ pounds, slightly smaller than last year's, but more than 60 pounds heavier than the next entry which weighed 135 pounds.

"I think the heat had an effect and then something – we think maybe a beaver – took a couple of bites out of it," said Broom. She washed the pumpkin with a bleach solution and dried it with a hairdryer daily, to keep it from rotting, which worked.

"I thought the fair judges might have a problem with the bite marks, but they didn't," Broom said. Unfortunately, they did have a problem with something else.

Even though the Waitsburg had the heaviest pumpkin, they had to forfeit the blue ribbon because fair officials didn't receive the entry form, required by Aug. 4, until Aug. 6. Broom said the form was postmarked on the 4th, as required in the instructions, but the official she spoke to said they no longer had the envelope to prove it.

Broom said she has purchased medals and rosettes for her team, anyway, because they deserve it. "All the kids worked really hard and threw themselves into the project. I'm really proud of them," she said.

Broom's team will have a table at the Pioneer Fall Festival on Sept. 20 and will auction off some of their largest pumpkins and sell others. There will also be a sign-up sheet available for students who want to participate in next summer's project.