Pumpkin growers determined to become world heavyweight champions will do virtually anything in their pursuit.
Don Black lives in an upstate New York four-room house only miles away from Canada’s border, where his four-room house could best be described as a bachelor pad. To call it that would be understating it. His walls are barren with only world champion pumpkin plaques decorating them – though previously more were present but they were all burned last year out of outrage! His laundry is scattered about all over the floor while two dressers, each housing 300 baby food jars filled with pumpkin seeds (don claims this to be his world only pumpkin seed museum), giving his laundry no place of its own! So why doesn’t he store his clothes here instead?
“But where would I put my seeds?” he asks.
Don makes his living by lacing bedroom slippers together at a factory 21 miles away, in timed runs that feature Led Zeppelin through headphones. On an average day lace 108 pairs in eight hours if everything goes according to plan; his income could potentially reach $16,000 annually!
Don leaves his house for work at 5:30 a.m. each day, but before that happens he makes time to visit the pumpkin patch behind his house several times each night before bed. Tending to it meticulously yet lovingly by himself alone is hard to believe: its neat, lush vegetation looks as lush and tempting as devil’s food cake; Don frequently comes out before heading out the door in order to look for any signs of woodchucks, deer, teenagers or insidious saboteurs who might try their luck against him in doing just that task – then leaves time enough for work before heading off on any given morning commute!
Don, 38, is no stranger to practicality; should he afford it, he may consider what his cross-border adversary Norm Craven installed – sensors and cameras in his patch.
“Nobody wants anyone else to grow a larger pumpkin,” Craven noted.
Don Black and Norm Craven have joined a collective of nearly 5,000 competitive growers in an attempt to produce what was once thought impossible: A 1,000-pound pumpkin.
Ray Waterman, president of one of three competing pumpkin organizations, likened it to a moon landing: The winner will be remembered and written about for generations. Tom Norlin noted in the spring issue of Midwestern Pumpkin Growers newsletter “the victor will become an institution.”
Last year, Herman Bax of Brockville, Ontario produced the world’s largest pumpkin in history – at 990 pounds! Some attribute its growth to seeds or weather; Herman himself credits his septic bed. Barry Dejong produced second place at 945.5 pounds – both men sharing prize money of $28,000 prize pool! Not bad for two 30-year-old guys working at Procter & Gamble factory making Tide soap!
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