State record pumpkin certified at Ronan Harvest Festival
Megan Strickland
Sisters Vivian and Ella Grainey go pumpkin bowling with a friend at the Ronan Harvest Festival.
Megan Strickland
Spectators walk by Atlantic Giant pumpkins at the Ronan Harvest Festival, including the new state record pumpkin.
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Mountain West Co-op created three little pigs and a straw shack for their entry into the round bale contest at the Ronan Harvest Festival.
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Final details are put on the Starlite Motel’s entry into the Ronan Harvest Festival round bale contest.
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Shaelyn Kohn cuddles a bunny at the Ronan Harvest Festival.
Megan Strickland
Megan Strickland
Zucchini racers built by Vivian and Ella Grainey steam down the track.
Megan Strickland
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A long dry spell kept farmers and gardeners irrigating this summer, but there were still plenty of fruits and vegetables to be had as Ronan marked the first day of fall with a harvest festival on Saturday.
This year’s crop of Atlantic Giant pumpkins was especially bountiful. Big Sky Pumpkin Growers had five of the enormous gourds registered, lifted by forklift onto pedestals and displayed in its third annual contest.
Kyle Koschmeder’s 1,168 pound pumpkin set a new state record. The Shelby farmer said he was hoping for a state record when he began growing the gourd.
“That was my goal anyway,” Koschmeder said. “It took lots of work.”
Koschmeder set a previous state record with a 700-pound pumpkin three years ago; all five of this year’s entries weighed more than that. The entries were still much smaller than the current world record of 2,009 pounds.
Emmett May, president of the Big Sky Pumpkin Grower’s Club, said it takes “a lot of love and care” and fertilizer to get the gourds to grow so big. Koschmeder planned to take his record pumpkin back home where it will stay on display at the court house until Halloween. Another of his gigantic pumpkins will go on display at a corn maze in Vaughn.
Atlantic Giants weren’t the only super-sized vegetables to see at the festival. A 94-inch zucchini tested the bounds of how long the squash could grow, while a 35-pounder showed how much girth the plants could produce.
Sisters Vivian and Ella Grainey may not have had the largest zucchinis but theirs were certainly the cutest. The two girls were the only entrants into this year’s zucchini races. Dolled up with star-shaped princess wands that made a tail, pink ribbon for hair, foam appliques for style, and pressed on eyeballs, the zucchinis were skewered with axles and wheels so they could steam down the track. The girls were kind enough to share their racers with the small throng of young children gathered to cheer them on.
Nearby, 2-year-old Moses Holm had fun playing with pumpkins that weren’t dressed up or super sized, but instead were just the perfect size for little boys and girls to send barreling down a ramp towards bowling pins. He clapped and cheered as his mother rearranged the pins after he bowled a perfect strike.
Harvest doesn’t exclusively apply to crops. It’s also a time to celebrate the animals that were born in the springtime and matured during the summer months. Shaelyn Kohn spent much of her time at the festival cuddling with a bunny at the petting zoo pen manned by local 4-H children.
The delicious tastes of entries into the chili cook off let people see the delectable result when good vegetables, meat, and the right chef are paired together.
As families filed out of the festival grounds with their bellies and shopping bags full of vegetables and meat, many of them spent time walking up and down Main Street and Highway 93, looking at the most auspicious reminder that fun had been had in Ronan during the day: the hay bales. The huge pieces of art included an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen, three little pigs and a straw shack at Mountain West Co-op, and a wicked witch that had an unfortunate run in with a post at Don Aadsen Ford Mercury.
