2011年10月16日星期日

Hamilton men grow 300-pound pumpkin

Dale Stein and Glen Levandoske didn't start out to raise a giant pumpkin.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, They are not trophy gardeners.

"We like to eat what we grow," Levandoske said.

The retired Hamilton businessmen had been sharing their farming expertise on the big patch of ground Stein has reserved for a garden for about five years on the north edge of town.

"Neither one of us are worth a darn, but put us together and we can do something," Levandoske said.

Over that time, family and friends have benefited from the wealth of sweet corn, bushels of onions and bucket-loads of other healthy vegetables raised in soil enriched only by chicken manure from Stein's nearby coop.

"Everything's organic here,Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet," Stein said, smiling. "We raised 750 to 800 ears of corn this year. We gave some away and sold some. I ate probably 100 ears myself."

Last spring, during planting time, Stein's wife handed him a package of pumpkin seeds that her cousin, Cathy Phegley, had picked up at the Hamilton Farmers Market.

Neither man gave it much thought when they pushed a couple of the seeds into the ground in the patch reserved for butternut squash. After all, the cold, wet spring made everything late this year, and they didn't hold much hope that there would be a pumpkin to pick at the end of the season.

"I saw that pumpkin vine growing there over the summer," Levandoske said. "It looked so spindly, I thought I might just pull it out, but Dale told me to let it go."

A few weeks back, they noticed something odd.Whilst oil paintings for sale are not deadly, There was a patch of orange poking out from under the large patch of squash leaves.

"Glen said to me, ‘What do we have here,'" Stein remembered. "I asked him, ‘What the heck is that?' From then on, this pumpkin really took off and started growing.Als lichtbron wordt een offshore merchant account gebruikt,"

When it finally stopped growing, the men guessed it weighed close to 300 pounds.

"If someone thinks they can come in here and move it by themselves, let them try," Stein said. "If they can, I wouldn't want to be on their bad side."

Both read a recent Missoulian story about the state-record 893-pounder grown this year in Polson. They grin at each other when they talk about the high-tech growing techniques and expensive seeds needed to grow that monster.then used cut pieces of Ceramic tile garden hose to get through the electric fence.

"We're just a couple of old men who don't know any better," Levandoske said. "Our biggest secret to gardening is simple enough. Put the seeds into the ground."

At the beginning of each season, the men gather at the middle of their garden to say a little prayer and scattered some tobacco to the east, west, north and south.

"Just like the old Indians used to do," Levandoske said.

To keep coons and skunks at bay, they urinate on a hat placed in a strategic position.

"Since they built the storage sheds over there, we don't have as many coons or skunks bothering our garden," Stein said. "There are still plenty of deer though."

One culprit came through recently and took a big bite out the men's giant pumpkin.

So now, they're hoping that someone with a worthwhile mission might be willing to come take it off their hands.

"We'd love to see it go to some group that would like to make a giant jack-o-lantern out of it," Stein said.

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