Giant pumpkins: Big contest at parish fair

FRANKLINTON — Inside the Agricultural Crops Building at the Washington Parish Fairgrounds Saturday, Henry Harrison’s voice carried loudly to the gathered crowd.

“It’s time to weigh our pumpkins,” said Harrison, LSU AgCenter’s county agent for the parish.

And these pumpkins aren’t the normal garden-variety gourds found in a grocery story.

These are big-uns, grown by parish residents as part of the pumpkin-growing contest.

More than 45 pumpkin seed packets were distributed to contestants in August, and the pumpkins were officially weighed Saturday.

The winner, grown by Rusty Fornea, came in at whopping 256 pounds. Second place went to Jerry Cancienne for his 197-pound pumpkin, and Billy Graves came in third at 184 pounds.

In the youth division, Eric Fornea won first with his 202.5-pound pumpkin; John Scott Simmons came in second at 165 pounds; and Hayden Fornea was third with a pumpkin of 147 pounds.

Cancienne said his pumpkin weighed out at just over 200 pounds when he weighed it at home before the fair, but it lost a little weight sitting in the crops building for few days.

Still, he was proud of his second-place prize.

His secret for growing a 200-pound pumpkin?

“I grew it with rabbit manure,” said Cancienne, who lives near Franklinton. “I raise rabbits.”

That fertilizer proved beneficial, as Cancienne took home $75 and a trophy for his second-place effort.

First-place winners took home $100 each, and third-place finishers each got $50. All participants received ribbons, and Harrison said he is planning on organizing another pumpkin-growing contest for next year’s fair. He may open it up to all Louisiana residents, making it a state competition.

The program was sponsored by LSU AgCenter, McMillan’s Nursery and The Daily News.