It wasn’t the best year for huge pumpkins, as Cook County’s winning gourd was the lightest since 2001

For 40 minutes, 72-year-old Mary Gavenda said she felt like a kid again.

The Lemont resident took part in the festivities in the 22nd Cook County Farm Bureau Giant Pumpkin Contest at Puckerville Farms Saturday in Lemont. The event has several contests and she sat down to participate in the carving contest, which she won.

“It’s bringing the kid out of you,” she said. “You used to do it with the kids and now you get to do it yourself. I’m having fun with it.”

Daisy Rivera finished second and 77-year-old Joe Rivera, Mary’s husband, placed third in the carving event, which had a 40-minute time limit.

Mary, who also won in 2021, owned the bragging rights in the family but Joe was the Rookie of the Year as this was his first attempt at the contest.

“Mary has been coming here for years and she lassoed me to come last year,” said Joe, a native of Steger and Tinley Park. “This year I tried it — it’s fun.”

According to the University of Illinois Extension website, and brought up Saturday in the event’s trivia contest, 90 to 95% of processed pumpkins in the United States are grown in Illinois. So the Cook County Farm Bureau cooked up this two-hour fest, which originally began in Countryside, to celebrate pumpkins.

“We used to do it at a building in Countryside in the parking lot,” said Bob Rohrer, the Farm Bureau manager who has overseen all 22 contests. “But this feels like a better place to do it. We’ve been out here for 10 years or so.”

Joy Homerding enjoyed a home patch advantage and won first place in the giant pumping contest with an entry of 157 pounds. She is an owner of Puckerville Farms and this is the first time she won the contest after a second-place finish last year and coming in third place in 2019.

It usually takes four or five people to lift a pumpkin that large, but in the grand scheme of things, this was the lightest winning pumpkin since 2001.

This competition’s record for biggest pumpkin came in 2015, when Stan Goreczny bought a 1,115-pounder. Don Carlson, a 12-time champion, grew a 990-pounder in 2014 and a 942-pound monster in 2012.

Carlson is a prolific winner at Puckerville but this year the Plainfield resident, a native of Dolton who attended Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, did not enter.

“The last few years, I’ve had some bad luck and the main one I had wasn’t taking off,” he said.

But he was still on hand to watch the action on Saturday.

Growing almost half-ton pumpkins is not just a matter of throwing a few seeds in the ground.

For Carlson, it’s a daily project full of fertilizing and pollinating and even tossing a jacket or blanket on the pumpkins on cold nights.

The soil preparation in spring is a huge factor, and avoiding diseases is a hurdle throughout the season.

Carlson usually gets a start in April and has his pumpkins ready by late September.

“I enjoy it and grow all sorts of vegetables,” he said. “I grow food and pumpkins for fun. They are time consuming but you have to love it.”

When he brought his 900-plus pound entries to the contest, he had a dozen people hauling it on a tarp with handles. He said his prized pumpkins grew 20 pounds a day and it is interesting watching the progress.

“First it looks like a golf ball, then a softball, then a volleyball and then a basketball,” Carlson said. “After that, it really takes off. I think the world record is 2,700 pounds, and those pumpkins can grow 50 pounds a day.

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“That’s unbelievable.”

Glenn Van Milligan took second place in the 2022 contest while Marcos Gallegos was third.

Landon Milella won the youth contest with a 53-pound entry followed by Valerie and Amelia Doorneweerd, who finished second and third respectively.

John Rine’s honey was declared the best in that contest, followed by Mike Davies and Kate Swain. Marcella Rivera won the pumpkin dessert contest followed by Donny Carlson and Mary Gavenda.

There were also a lot of activities for children, and Gallegos, of St. Charles, brought his family there for the first time and he said his 3-year-old daughter Elena enjoyed herself.

“A friend invited us,” he said. “It’s good, it’s fun and she is enjoying creating the pumpkin,” he said. “She’s been playing the games and having a great time.”

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.