By MICHELLE MILLER
Staff Writer
The Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce
has been hosting PumpkinFest for
six years and the event is always a hit for
the community, according to organizers.
It is not every day people get to see
dozens of giant pumpkins
gathered in one
spot, says Susan
O’Handley, executive
director of the Cooperstown
Chamber of
Commerce. And it is
quite a spectacle to
see people hop inside
the giant pumpkins
and paddle them
across the lake, she
added.
The festivities will begin this Saturday.
Pumpkin and other fruit growers
will start gathering at Doubleday Filed
parking lot at 7 a.m. with a weigh-off
scheduled to kick off at 10 a.m. The weighoff
is an all day event where contestants
will compete for over $7,000 in prize money.
The monstrous fruit are carefully relayed
from their pallets to the official
scale where weight, girth and fruit lineage
are recorded for entry.
On Sunday,
pumpkins will be
hollowed out at
Lakefront Park in
preparation for the
Giant Pumpkin Regatta
on Otsego
Lake. O’Handley
said races are
planned to begin at
approximately
noon. She said she
has a waiting list of
participants who want to take part in the
unique event.
``We will have to see how many we can
give a change to have a run at this,’’ she
said.
Other event highlights
include live music, pumpkin
painting, crafts, and
plenty to eat. Music will be
provided by the Cooperstown
Concert Series with
performances by the Horseshoe
Lounge Playboys between
noon and 2 p.m.
New this year, will be a
food and beer tasting event
held on the Cooperstown
Inn front lawn on Saturday
afternoon. People will have
the chance to taste featured
ales and beers from local
breweries as well as different
foods made with pumpkin,
says O’Handley.
According to organizers,
pumpkins will be trucked
to Cooperstown with great
care from regions throughout
New York State, Vermont,
New Hampshire,
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania
in order to enter
the contest.
``We are looking for a
great turnout and beautiful
fall weather,’’ says
O’Handley.
Organizers were anticipating
the biggest PumpkinFest
ever last year, but
Mother Nature did not cooperate.
After last year’s
event, chamber business officer
Angela Chadwell said
the rain did not only interfere
with the event itself,
but it had a pretty big impact
on the growing season.
O’Handley says there is
no way of knowing how
many entries there will be
this year. She says she has
been hearing mixed reviews
about the wet growing season.
Some growers are saying
they made out good and
others are saying they did
not, she says.
O’Handley says the
event typically gets 60-80
pumpkins, and she is anticipating
about the same
estimate for this year’s festival.
Another reason for not
knowing how many entries
there will be, according to
O’Handley, is because some
of the pumpkins explode
when they are being
moved.
``It seems that after
months of care and growing,
these large pumpkins
build up gasses inside and
when jostled or moved on
the way to the contest, they
sometimes cause the pumpkin
to explode,’’ says
O’Handley.
Pumpkin weights were
down last year, according
to organizers. Randy and
Deb Sundstrom of Walton
won the grand prize of
$4,000 for the largest
pumpkin. It weighed in at
1,248 pounds. The Sundstroms
came in second
place in 2007. Karl Haist of
Clarence Center won the
squash and watermelon
competitions. His squash
weighed 1,177 pounds and
his watermelon weighed
110.5 pounds. John Hilstolsky,
of Pennsylvania, had
the biggest tomato of the
day. It weighed 2.16 pounds.
Vickie Reynolds, of Pennsylvania,
had the longest
gourd measuring 95.5 inches
