18 sleeps to go in NZ
Only 18 sleeps to go to the big day. Not a lot to report. I water in the
morning, the sun shines all day, I spray at weekends. The watering
restrictions have all been lifted so I can water freely. The pumpkins are
all holding on and there is still plenty of leaf on the vines looking really
healthy. There were some soft spots appearing on Eric but I made a copper
paste and rubbed it in. The spots seem to have calloused over and all looks
well. We are having a wonderful autumn with the temp in mid twenties and the
sea still warm.
I am still keeping off the patch and not really spending a lot of time with
the pumpkins - they are sort of looking after themselves really. A local
paper from Whakatane (East Coast, North Island) reported a competition on
April 1st so I have written to the paper to challenge them for the coveted
'chocolate fish'.
That is about it - I see there is action on your side of the planet - your
days must be getting longer now.
Our target this year is to beat Ken Holden's 286 kilo whopper, a new
Australian record. I reckon Eric may be close. I still do not know whose
seed produced Eric or any of his mates. I will let you know as soon as I
can.
I will be posting all photo's of the weighoff to Bob's site on
www.pumpkinnook.com/commune/nzgrowers.htm so bookmark it now and I will try
and get shots off every half hour and Bob will post them as quick as he can
- thanks Bob.
Tarin at Information South Taranki who is organising the festival is busy
booking all the entertainment and doing all the organising that makes it a
huge success. We have Miss Taranaki this year - Jack, that makes up for not
being able to interview the dancing girls this year !!!! We will be having
pumpkin soup, pie, pikelets, jam, bread, wine (yum) and a few extra pumpkin
things all compliments of the rural women. We have got through an entire
summer recreation programme with hot sunny weather for everything this year
so the pumpkin festival should be a good one.
Just FYI, Eric is named after Eric Burden of the Animals fame. Last year I
had Dusty, Cilla and Lulu, you will need to know British pop/rock to know
those.
John S
www.windwand.co.nz
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