Massive pumpkin steals the show

Isla Rogers, 7, sitting atop the giant pumpkin. Supplied photos.

A truly magnificent pumpkin, weighing more than half a tonne, was the star of the show at this year's inaugural Good Neighbour Pumpkin Fair.

Other, lesser pumpkins were also on display at the fair, held down in the Historic Village on Saturday.

Good Neighbour media and marketing coordinator Angela Rogers says they invited a number of local schools to take part.

'Last year we grew 2500 pumpkin plants and dished them out to every school in the Bay of Plenty with an invitation to grow a giant pumpkin. We had 12 schools take up the challenge for this first year, although I think more turned up on the day.”

The big attraction was the giant pumpkin from Morrinsville, weighing in at 676 kilograms, grown by dairy farmer Tim Harris.

'He's a pumpkin fanatic – he grows them like that every year,” says Angela.

'It took 160 days to grow, with a thousand litres of water a day. He does pH soil testing on it and feeds it lots and lots of manure. There's a science to it – it's a big deal for pumpkin growers.”

Unfortunately, it's not edible. Angela's hoping they can find a hill next year to roll big pumpkins like that down, and smash them up for a bit of fun.

There were plenty of pumpkin-related stalls at the fair, as well as baking, face-painting, sack races, and three-legged races. Different contests were held for the kids, too, with best-dressed pumpkin going to Papa Smurf.

Harold the Giraffe from Life Education Trust was also in attendance, with Mark Eagle from the Breeze performing the duties of MC.

Around two or three hundred people came down to enjoy the sunny autumn fair, and Angela hopes even more will show up next year.

'We think it's a great opportunity to get children excited about growing things.”

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