Move over, fellas, because the biggest, baddest pumpkin in the patch was grown by a lady this year.
The pumpkin kings are dead!
Long live Pumpkin Queen, Angie Crabtree!
It was Crabtree’s 314-pound orange titan that took home the gold and bragging rights at the 7th annual big pumpkin weigh-off Friday at Louie’s Food & Spirits in Lakeville.
‘I’m so glad I won,? said Crabtree, of Auburn Hills, who’s been trying her hardest to win the local competition since 2004.
Crabtree beat contest regulars Steve Fogler (277? pounds), Zivko ‘Zeeke? Vasovski (159 pounds) and Steve Ardelean (60? pounds). She also thrashed newcomer Joe Rossell, of Leonard, who grew a 138-pounder.
For her efforts, Crabtree was awarded a fall harvest basket full of goodies including apples, cider, candy corn, maple syrup, honey, steak and barbecue sauces, preserves and a $25 gift certificate to Louie’s Food & Spirits.
Winning this contest was quite an accomplishment for Crabtree considering she’s allergic to something in the pumpkin vines.
‘I still go out every year and break out in hives,? she said. ‘But I cut them all and prune them all myself.?
The pumpkins in this year’s contest, which weighed a combined 949 pounds, were much smaller than entries and winners from previous years.
‘It was a bad pumpkin growing year,? Crabtree said. ‘I just got lucky.?
Ardelean’s pumpkin had the distinction of being the smallest entry in the contest’s history. It was the only one of his that survived this year.
This is ironic considering he used seeds from Steve Zuhlke, of Berlin Township, who set a new state pumpkin record last year with a 1,302-pounder and won last year’s weigh-off at Louie’s with an 824-pounder.
‘I did everything he said, but I couldn’t get anything to grow,? Ardelean said. ‘They would grow no bigger than a basketball and then they would rot . . . I don’t know what it was. Everybody said it was lack of rain. We had problems with the cucumbers too ? they didn’t grow very well and they died off.?
Vasovski, co-owner of Louie’s, and Ardelean, of Addison, founded the pumpkin growing contest in 2001 as a friendly little gardening competition between neighbors.
It quickly became an annual event drawing spectators and bets on pumpkin weights. Others began entering the contest in 2004.
Since then, neither Vasovski nor Ardelean has claimed the mantle of victory. But as they say, there’s always next year. . .