Tom Dudka has been growing large pumpkins for nine years, but this is the first year he has ever won a prize for his giant gourds.
The New Glasgow, N.S. resident took his 900-pound pumpkin to the Windsor Pumpkin Festival over the weekend and came home with the top prize for prettiest pumpkin.
“I had two choices,” says Dudka. “Put it into the heavy hitters, which is the heaviest pumpkins, or put it in the prettiest pumpkins, but the comments I was getting from people was it was a beautiful pumpkin.”
The Annapolis Valley Giant Vegetable Growers gave Dudka the Hilda Dill Award for the Most Perfect Pumpkin.
Despite its size, Dudka’s gourd kept its shape and the ribs held their line.
“The major thing is your colour, your coordinated colour,” says Dudka. “Like, you see how it’ll be dark orange or it’ll be light, and that’s what makes a pumpkin good. Right here, you can see the perfect, you know, the perfect form. At the top is perfect there. The colour is beautiful, what they class as a beautiful colour for a pumpkin.”
Dudka’s ‘perfect pumpkin’ is on display at a Sobeys store in New Glasgow.
“The plan for the pumpkin, we’re going to take care of it, make sure it keeps as dry as possible. It is under video surveillance, if anybody needs to know, and we’re building a display around it, just to kind of protect it from the weather and the elements,” says store assistant manager Kenny Gordon.
Dudka says his pumpkin is up for grabs, but under one condition.
“A 500-pound pumpkin, Graves took years ago, and they made 488 pies,” says Dudka. “So, if anybody feels like making some pies for me, then they can have my pumpkin.”
The ‘perfect pumpkin’ will be on display until October 25, when the store will have a big carving celebration.
As for the seeds, Dudka says they have already been spoken for.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh
