Oct 8, 2012

Records Are Made to Be Broken By Tim Hodson

Ron Wallace did it!

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about his quest to grow the first-ever one-ton pumpkin.

Well, the pumpkin grower from Rhode Island submitted his great pumpkin to the judges at the Topsfield Fair and it weighed 2,009 pounds!

Wallace is a veteran competitive pumpkin grower and he has been painstakingly growing his prized pumpkin all season long.

Competitive pumpkin growers, just like all growers, know you can never take anything for granted and Wallace definitely wasn’t. When growing such big pumpkins anything can go wrong. It could crack or rot or get damaged in transport – and that means disqualification from the comeptition.

Wallace harvested and successfully delivered his gargantuan gourd to the Topsfield Fair just north of Boston but he was nervous up until the final weigh-in.

The crowd was buzzing with anticipation as it was placed on the scales and Ron Wallace was one proud Pumpkin Papa when the official weight was announced..

For his efforts, Wallace won $5,500 for winning the competition and he also received a $10,000 bonus for being the first grower to produce a one-ton pumpkin.

Click here to see Wallace’s reaction when the final weight was announced as well as local news coverage of the event.

Two Weeks to Go

Don’t forget the deadline for applying for the 2013 GPN/Nexus Intern of the Year Scholarship is just two weeks away.

All applications for this $3,000 scholarship, trip to OFA Short Course and feature article on their internship must be submitted by Oct. 22.

Click here for details on how to apply.