“One thousand, two hundred and eighty three pounds!” the emcee shouted to the crowd, to thunderous applause.
That’s the sound of a winning giant pumpkin being weighed at the Alaska State Fair today in Palmer. The best of three entries tipped the scale at 1,283 pounds.
Pumpkin grower Dale Marshall of Anchorage took first and second place, because he grew all three entries in today’s contest. But the big, lopsided, orange pumpkin missed breaking the state record by a mere three pounds. Marshall was philosophical about it.
“Three and a half pounds would have tied it. It was J.D. Meckelson’s record down in Nikiski. I thought it was going to weigh a little bit more, but oh well. I thought I had him this year, yeah, I really did.”
Marshall’s two other entries literally paled by comparison to the winner. The two white pumpkin entries weighed 780 and 753 pounds. The state fair runs through Labor Day.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
