Judging Request
I recently had the opportunity to judge the Te Kauwhai School Harvest Festival.
This was my fourth or fifth time doing so, and I really appreciate them asking me to check out all their pumpkins. Before that I had to help with lifting a pumpkin.
The Pumpkin Lift
The evening before the festival, I was asked to help lift a pumpkin Dale had grown and ensure we could weigh it, which was fun. I haven’t moved pumpkins in a while, and I think I probably missed that in some weird way.
I have a lifting ring, which makes things a lot easier. The lifting ring looks weird because many years ago, I drew a picture on a piece of paper and gave it to an engineer who made it. I am no artist and I probably screwed the image up.
This isn’t what a normal lifting ring looks like, but it is functional. I have been using it for many years, and it seems to work fine for smaller pumpkins in the 200-300 kilo range.
I wouldn’t use it for really big pumpkins over 500 kilos.
A Quiet Festival Day
The following day, I went to the school, and it was very quiet due to the rain. The actual harvest event which kicks off later in the afternoon was canceled, and they decided to hold it the following week. However, all the pumpkins had already been delivered, so I was there to judge them.
Every pumpkin was weighed on the school’s scales to ensure fairness. The big pumpkin we weighed the night before was about 188 kilos on the hanging scales. When it was at the school the next morning, it was 179.6 kilos. While some weight loss is expected after a pumpkin is cut off the vine, losing that much weight in less than 24 hours was surprising and it probably came down to the scales.
It was still the largest pumpkin there by a significant margin, with the second-place pumpkin weighing 53.6 kg.
Creative Creations
As always, there were amazing pumpkin and vegetable creations, as well as scarecrows. This event is a great inspiration for any pumpkin-related creation.
Judging the same event every year allows me to see similar things occasionally, and I’m always looking for something new and original or a different approach. I also appreciate when a creation involves a lot of effort, and I take that into consideration when judging.
Judging Challenges
One challenge when judging a school event is that families may have entered multiple entries, and I don’t know who is who. I judge based on what I think, and some people may receive multiple awards.
This could be a significant issue for larger events, especially in the creation type category. I have developed a system to help judges remain as impartial as possible while ensuring fairness across the board. It’s important to spread the awards out a bit, especially in the creative category, to avoid one person or family receiving multiple prizes.
For pumpkin events, there is usually a one-pumpkin-per-category rule, but some events may not have this rule due to a limited number of pumpkins in some years.
A Giant thanks
Overall, it was a great experience, and I enjoyed seeing everything at the festival. I hope their event went well. I want to extend a big thanks to Te Kowhai School for inviting me once again. I hope to see them next year, and I hope you enjoy the photos from the festival.
Growing giant pumpkins is a passion that I love sharing. 🎃 If you’ve found my content helpful or entertaining, why not say thanks with a coffee? ☕
It’ll fuel my next giant pumpkin adventure!
