SARATOGA SRPINGS, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) – The 9th annual Saratoga Giant Pumpkinfest kicked off on Saturday. Growers from all around the nation competed for the biggest gourd amongst nearly two dozen participants. The event was put on by the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, and included representatives from The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth and New York State Giant Pumpkin Growers’ Association.
Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! Pumpkins at the festival weighed anywhere from a couple hundred pounds to nearly 2,000 pounds. Andy Wolf, a part of the New York State Giant Pumpkin Growers’ Association, has been involved in the contest for 20 years as both a participant and a judge.
“Oh, its an addiction,” Wolf said. “You know, if you grow something big, you hit the scale, you have got a number. You are trying to beat that number the next year and the next year, and the next year.”
The pumpkin weigh-off began at 11 a.m. and ended around 3 p.m., and nearly 1,000 people came to the Saratoga Springs City Center Parking Garage to see who won has the biggest pumpkin.
Officials search for cause of Waterford garage fire Andrea Mulholland, the Vice President of Events and Marketing of the Saratoga County Chamber,said the festival is one of only a few that take place in the state and helps showcase downtown Saratoga.
“Bringing in all these different people coming from all over the United States, it really showcases what we have here in Saratoga County and in downtown Saratoga,” Mulholland said. “We have people that are coming from all over the country, we have people who are staying in hotels and eating and restaurants downtown and wanting to plan a trip for next year too.”
Wayne Seelow has been a part of the pumpkin fest for 13 years and shared the secret to getting pumpkins so big.
Rensselaer Common Council votes to override the mayors veto “It’s all in your soil we have our soil tested every year,” Seelow said. “And it comes back and recommends what to add to it and everything else. But they suck up a lot of nitrogen, and luck.”
Wolf said the pumpkins are brought to the competition by growers on trailers, and then transported off of their pallets by a forklift and onto the scale one by one.
“We weigh these from smallest to biggest, we have a crew that has gone around and measured them so we know, but some of them are thicker than others, that’s why we weigh them,” Wolf said. “It’s not a beauty contest; it’s strictly by the weight.”
The winners of the contest are Lois and Terry Nelson from West Virginia with a pumpkin weighing 1727 pounds who came in 3rd place. Dan Kruszyna from Massachusetts with a 1814 pound pumpkin came in 2nd place. The first place winner was Jim Hazeltine who is from New York with a pumpkin weighing 2018 pounds. Additionally, the heaviest pumpkin grown in Saratoga county in the contest was Patrick Mickle’s from Clifton Park.
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