Cherry festival celebrates summer in the Flathead
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POLSON — Pie-eater Daniel Smith was doing fine until he hit the bottom crust that slowed him down.
Smith and seven other adults competed to finish half a cherry pie during the pie-eating contest at Polson’s annual Cherry Festival on July 18.
Kids also got a chance to show off their pie-eating skills.
“Leyton only shoved his face in it,” big brother Dyllan Hankins said of his younger brother’s performance in the kid’s cherry pie-eating contest. That may have been the case, but sister Katelyn, 5, joined her brothers to eat some cherry pie, and all three kids had a good time.
Sweet Flathead cherries are a big part of summer in Polson, and the Polson Cherry Festival on July 17 and 18 celebrated the juicy red fruit.
With cherry scones from the St. Joseph’s Medical Center booth, homemade cherry pies from the Montecahto and Yellow Bay ladies, cherry gelato, Belgian waffles on a stick dipped in chocolate, cherry lemonade, hamburgers and frozen fruit kebabs, to name just a few, there was not a shortage of yummy things to eat at the Polson Cherry Festival held downtown on July 17 and 18.
With music from the Great Scots and Singing Sons of Beaches on Saturday and Southern Comfort on Sunday, plus great weather, people could enjoy the tunes and shop. All the downtown stores were open as well as vendors who came to town especially for the cherry festival.
Page by Page Books owner Marilyn Maier said the festival overall was very favorable for downtown businesses.
“The cherry festival brought a lot of folks to town, and they seemed to be enjoying it,” Maier said.
“There was a ton of traffic,” Jackie Cripe, chair of the Polson Cherry Festival said. “Plus we had a lot going on.”
Interspersed throughout the afternoons were contests. In the kid’s cherry-pit spitting on Saturday, Jadon Allen launched a pit over 17 feet to clinch the win. Don Saxton in the adult division spit his pit 23 feet.
The Saxton family from Bigfork were the big winners, with dad Don winning both the pit spitting and the pie-eating contest and son Kyle winning the kids' pie-eating contest and placing in the kid’s cherry-pit spitting.
Both Saxtons placed in the cherry-stem tying, also.
Results of the contests held during the Polson Cherry Festival included:
Adult cherry-pit spitting:
1. Don Saxton, 23 feet
2. Landon Desharnais
3. Frank Madrigal
Kid cherry-pit spitting:
1. Jadon Allen, 17’14’
2. Cole Forsythe
3. Kyle Saxton
Cherry-stem tying:
1. Arianna Hansen
2. Kyle Saxton
3. Don Saxton
Kid cherry-pie eating
1. Kyle Saxton
2. Trevor Theis
3. Lydia Hewston
Adult cherry-pie eating
1. Don Saxton
2. Daniel Smith
Most unique food containing cherries:
1. Betsy Buckley, cherry barbecue sauce
2. Marly Car, cherry tart on a stick
3. Busy Bee Kettle Corn, cherry kettle corn
Don Saxon, Bigfork, won the pie-eating and cherry-spitting.
Cherry quilt contest:
1. Bea Radermacher
2. Lora Pearson
3. Ginger Beasley
Kids' cherry pillowcase:
1. Azia Smith
Adult cherry pillowcase:
1. Maxine Ferguson
The Polson Business Community gave out over $1,000 worth of prizes in downtown gift certificates to winners, Cripe said. Three Dog Down presented a handmade cherry beach tote to the adult winner and a handmade purse to the kid’s winner and the second- and third-place winners received Three Dog Down gift certificates.
