Deb Eilers wins annual biggest-pumpkin contest
LITTLEFORK — About six miles south of the turnoff for Littlefork sits a lone building at a crossroads.
There’s no civilization in sight, except for the one-room Cross River Hall. Here, on a bright fall afternoon, neighbors from miles around gathered en masse to celebrate fall and all its bounty.
Weather was ripe for children in light jackets to climb trees — and giant pumpkins.
This was the third year for a biggest-pumpkin contest. A whopper of a gourd weighing in at more than 202 pounds was the winner by a landslide. The orange giant was grown by Deb Eilers — with the help of a tire.
She propped the pumpkin on a tire when part of its stem broke and its weight left it hanging by a thread. The pumpkin may have grown bigger if it had not grown into the tire and the underside taken the tire’s smaller form.
“I left it in God’s hands this year,” Eilers said. She said she planted the pumpkin in a pile of manure from the Polkinghornes and let Mother Nature and God do the rest.
The tire was sawed off the pumpkin prior to being weighed. Both children and adults divisions were held in the pumpkin contest. The kids winners were Anthony and Maria Leersen with a 102-pound pumpkin.
Area gardeners, part of an unofficial club, start growing their pumpkins on May 1. They’re not supposed to start growing before then, but it’s hard to police, participants say.
There was a lot of light-hearted banter and competition among the participants. Pumpkins ranged from the relatively tiny 15 pounders to pumpkins so big they had to be carried to the scale by a team of four men.
Inside the hall, a line formed around the buffet of a potluck supper. Dessert and pumpkin pie contests were held, as well. Judges Kevin Leerssen, Dave Trappe and Marsha Ingram had their sweet teeth satisfied with a sampling of pies, brownies and other treats. Deloris Boorman won the dessert contest; and Mickey Novotny’s pecan-topped pumpkin pie took top honors.
Locals say the Cross River Hall is used for a large hunter’s dinner as well as other community events. The pumpkin contest and potluck was truly a community celebration, as could only be held in a close-knit community like Cross River.
For photos, pick up today's edition of The Journal.
