New Boston News : county fair

Good gourd! – 1,100-pound pumpkin wins first for Goffstown man

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:29:00 GMT

Peter Carter had never won first place at a fair for his giant pumpkins before and had actually planned to take this year off from competitive growing. One really big pumpkin changed that.

Carter, of Goffstown, won the popular giant pumpkin contest at the Hills- borough County Fair with the same pumpkin which won him the grand prize at the Rochester Fair. The gargantuan gourd weighed in at 1,101 pounds at the Hillsborough Fair and 1,095 pounds at the Rochester Fair, easily winning the grand prize in both.

“It’s quite a story, really. We had nine guys lifting up a 886 pounder for me and then go for one that looked about the same size-wise. When the same nine guys went to lift (the 1,101 pounder) they had no such luck,” Carter said.

The winning pumpkin had to be fork lifted onto a palette and was then brought to the fair for its winning weighing.

It was the largest pumpkin Carter has grown in the 12 years he’s been trying.

“A pumpkin that size has to come from a special seed, and mine came from the world record holder last year, a 1,502 pounder in Connecticut. You also need a good soil and pesticides and fungicides to keep away the bugs and fungi that prey on pumpkins,” he said.

Another 800 pounder in Carter’s garden went to good use on Sept. 23 when his daughter was married with the enormous pumpkin as the backdrop. He also grew some much smaller gourds for his daughter.

Carter said growing the pumpkins is an ultimately rewarding experience.

“It’s sort of fascinating to see how they grow, because they grow by as much as 30 pounds a day. It’s also fun to see people stop and look because they’re always pointing, smiling and yelling about how big they are,” said Carter.

Right now the pumpkin is still at the Rochester Fair, and Carter said he is unsure what he will do with it. If it doesn’t rot before then, he said he might enter it in Goffstown’s Pumpkin Regatta.

Carter encouraged anyone who wants to try their hand at growing the behemoths to contact the Giant Pumpkin Grower’s Association of Goffstown or to visit their Web site at www.nhgpga.org.

Fair goes on despite heat, rain

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:36:00 GMT

BY DAVE CHOATE

When they said rain or shine, they meant it.

The Hillsborough County Fair endured heat, rain and reduced attendance on its 50th anniversary. Despite the challenges, the fair went off with only the fireworks being canceled.

“All in all, it was very good. We just had some terrible weather,” said Bill Mathefon, the president of the fair committee.

Mathefon said attendance was down nearly 50 percent from last year thanks to extreme heat Friday into Saturday and rain from Saturday night into Sunday. The fair planners had struggled with whether or not they should cancel the horse pull, but in the end if went off as planned.

Director Jennifer Brown said the fair relies on good weather to be successful. The fair’s famed King Arthur baking contest and apple pie contests still attracted plenty of participants, she said.

Commemorative 50th anniversary plates, shirts, calendars and other merchandise celebrating the fair’s history are still available. To purchase any of these, call Brown at 497-2374 or Mathefon at 487-5148.

50th Agricultural Fair to be biggest yet

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:49:00 GMT

BY DAVE CHOATE

In its 50th year, the Hillsborough County Agricultural Fair is bigger than ever.

Jolee Chase is a 4-H program associate for the county and she said the fair will be in full swing at the 4-H Youth Center in New Boston from Sept. 7 through 9. Fairgoers will have the chance to check out some of the familiar sights and sounds at the fair, including the live entertainment, giant pumpkin weigh and fireworks.

Chase said there will be a new event this year, as well. Potential riders can check out the new all-terrain vehicle class on Saturday at 4 p.m.

The fair should also satisfy anyone’s desire to see pulls, as Chase said there will be crowd favorite truck pulls, tractor pulls, horse pulls and ox pulls.

“There’s going to be lots of fun things for kids and adults, too. I’d like to remind anybody in Hillsborough County that they are welcome to bring vegetables, canned goods and sewing and knitting work to the fair.

They’ll be able to set those things up from 2 to 9 p.m. and receive ribbons for their work,” Chase said.

The culinary inclined can also participate in either the famous King Arthur Flour baking contest, the apple pie baking contest, and the new doughnut making contest, as well. Long- standing traditions such as the cowboy mounted shooters will return.

With all those events and more, it’s no wonder the 50th anniversary of the fair has taken nearly a full year to coordinate.

Chase said there are 17 fair board members and 30 superintendents in charge of departments of the fair who start scribbling plans in their notebooks as the fair is winding down.

“It takes 363 days to plan the fair, and what’s most amazing is that we have nothing but volunteers putting in the work,” she said.