BOISE — The Western Idaho Fair is well underway with all the fun rides, delicious foods, interesting entertainment and artwork, and the farm animals.
But another popular part of the fair every year is the horticulture entries, with flowers, fruits and vegetables grown by gardeners like you. Garden master Jim Duthie takes us to the fair to see some of the biggest home-grown fruits and vegetables around.
The horticulture building is the place to check out some of the biggest fruits and vegetables that you’ll find growing in southwest Idaho.
When it comes to growing fruits and vegetables, Idaho gardeners grow just about everything. But in this division at the Western Idaho Fair, size matters.
This is the display showing the largest and heaviest of everything from beets to eggplants to cantaloupes and cabbages.
“We got about 150 exhibitors that brought out almost 1,300 exhibits,” said Hans Bruijn, agriculture coordinator.
Like these zucchinis. Some of them are almost three feet long. And some of these cucumbers are almost as big.
There’s an apple bigger than my fist, and a watermelon topping 50 pounds.
This onion weighs in at a couple of pounds. Take it along with this super-sized tomato, and they’ll handle all the hamburgers at your next cookout.
“When it comes to the largest division, it’s basically just size and weight, depending on a little bit of what it is, like the pumpkins, they’re being weighed. And then we have like this sunflower, so we measure the length and will just go from there, and every year they seem to get bigger.”
This giant measuring more than a foot across. That’s a lot of sunflower seeds.
Winning entries are awarded a blue ribbon for their category, but the biggest ones get the orange ribbon, the award for the biggest fruit or vegetable of its kind. And that’s not all - winners can take home a cash prize, too.
“We actually get some sponsors that put in quite a bit of money, so the first place winner could get at least $150, besides the blue ribbon.”
Not to mention bragging rights.
“It buys a lot of seeds, and they probably use the seeds from the pumpkin that is right here.”
And this is the biggest of the bunch. Imagine the Halloween Jack-o-lantern you could make with this one! How much do you think it weighs? 50 pounds? 100 pounds? How about a whopping 280 pounds.
But as big as it is, there have been bigger ones entered in the Western Idaho Fair before.
“I remember about two or three years ago, we did have one that we had to bring in on a forklift because we couldn’t… nobody could carry it. So this year we still needed a little help, but not quite a big forklift.”
That was in 2015, and that giant pumpkin was twice the size of this one, weighing in at 544-and-a-half pounds.
There’s also a division for young gardeners under the age of 17.
“And there’s always quite a bit of youth that enter in that department, to show off their pumpkins and green beans and whatever else.”
None of these fruits and vegetables would be here if it weren’t for the honey bees, so there’s also a division for honey and beeswax products.
“We have more and more people that are getting involved in raising bees and honey, so we can see that here at the fair.”
“They actually have little hives with live bees that you can come and watch.”
If you haven’t been to the Western Idaho Fair yet, come to the Expo building. Check out all the horticulture entries of flowers, fruits, and vegetables – even honey here.
In addition to checking out all the fruit, vegetable and floral entries at the fair, you can also enter a drawing to win a signed copy of local gardening author and newspaper columnist Margaret Lauterbach’s new updated edition of her book “Gardening in the Treasure Valley.”
And if you’re thinking of entering something you’ve grown in the fair next year, go to the fair’s website for entry information. The 2018 Western Idaho Fair continues through Sunday evening.