Thinking Big

Six-hundred ninety-one pounds and counting. That’s more than a Steinway baby grand piano – a 5-by-5-foot encasement of heavy, full-bodied lacquer and solid brass hardware. It’s nearly three times as much as General Electric’s top-rated refrigerator.

It’s 18-year-old Adam Blalock’s pumpkin, one he hopes will make him proud at this year’s Spokane County Interstate Fair.

The pumpkin, tentatively named “Blush” for its pink and cream complexion, saddles 691 pounds on the scale according to Blalock’s estimates, but he won’t know for sure until weigh-in at this weekend’s fair. And first, he has to get there.

Last year, a friend helped Blalock hoist a prize-winning pumpkin into the back of a truck with a forklift. This year, Blalock is rigging up a heavy duty winch to ease Blush into his dad’s pickup truck. The transportation process takes all afternoon, but he says it’s not much compared to the time he spends throughout the year researching pumpkins, securing seeds from traders and tending to the vines. Despite the work, Blalock enjoys it.

“There’s something really cool about pumpkins,” he said. “You look at this tiny little seed and you just can’t imagine it growing something so big that nobody can move it.”

Competition spans far and wide at this year’s fair, which today launches a 10-day run of diverse entertainment, including crashing cars, sprinting swine and dazzling dahlias, not to mention butter churning demonstrations and knitting contests.

More than 200,000 people from around the Inland Northwest are expected to attend the fair’s 103rd year, themed “Flock to the Fair, We’ll See Ewe There!” where fair director Dolly Hughes says they will witness a variety of new spectacles.

“Each year we try to bring in something new, from activities to food,” she said, emphasizing the opening weekend’s nearly 80-head Texas longhorn cattle show that will showcase two record-setting steer.

Fairgoers can also look forward to a newly renovated, four-building food court that replaces a dilapidated food row from the 1960s. Vendors will serve traditional fare of caramel apples, elephant ears and snacks on sticks, as well as healthier options such as wraps and salads.

As always, the All Alaskan Racing Pigs will fill a slot, bursting from their pens four times daily, stumpy legs a blur in a mad dash for the finish line.

Four stages of entertainment traverse the park, with music from ‘80s rock group Night Ranger and country singer Gary Allan on the grandstand, as well as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Rodeo today through Sunday, the first-ever Spokane Idol competition Monday and motorsports next Fridayand Sept. 18.

Clowns, jugglers and magicians highlight the Familyville stage, and local acts will perform on the community stage. Area high school bands will provide the fair’s finale, performing big-band music on the north stage Sept. 19. The complete fair schedule is available online.

Carnival rides, arts and crafts, demonstrations, dance performances and a demolition derby round off the event’s lineup, with a Patriot Day parade highlighting Sept. 11 and a day for seniors Thursday. A Pink Panther 40th-birthday party will kick off the festivities, featuring free lottery tickets for adults wearing pink. And there will always be giant pumpkins to see.

Or maybe not. Blalock, part of a family of gardeners, has been raising pumpkins for three years. His 2004 entry, Blush, may be big, but he has grown larger. An estimated 800-pounder still sits in his patch, swelling 15 pounds a day, on reserve for an autumn weigh-off for Northwest pumpkin growers. But Blalock says the pumpkin-growing pursuit has lost much of its appeal to younger generations.

“Every year, less and less people do it,” he said. “Our generation of kids isn’t into gardening anymore. They’re into computers and cars. It’s kind of sad.”

Blalock will keep raising pumpkins and squash, about nine plants at a time, hoping they don’t pop and entering the best ones in contests. But he doesn’t compete just to win. He says the best part is seeing the faces of fairgoers when they first encounter a truly giant pumpkin.

“When I go to the fair, I don’t look at my own pumpkin,” he said. “I look at the people looking at it. It’s a really fun feeling to make people look and say, ‘Wow, that thing’s cool.’ “