RE: Alun

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Here, here.  I agree!  No mud slinging and I know I don’t grow for the money. (I would starve if I did.) 

 

Andrew, Of course people are going to question the validity of a fruit weighed outside of a large crowd, just like people would question me saying I got a hole-in-one while golfing with a couple of buds.  This is the reason for credible witnesses.  (Thank God I don’t golf…this is only an example.  The only hole-in-one I ever got is at put-put.)  Again, I don’t disagree about the sportsmanship of ‘playing on a level field’, but no matter how we try, we will never be on a level field due to the different microclimates, soils, etc., even within a region.  Some regions have early weigh-offs, late weigh-offs, state and local fairs, while others have no weigh-off at all.  I commend you on your personal best, no matter which one you consider it to be.  I personally would consider two personal bests…one official, and one unofficial.

 

Personally, I like the argument someone made about if your fruit splits on the way home from weigh-off, or better yet, soon after taken off the scale.  The ONLY requirement is that it is judged to be a solid fruit PRIOR to getting weighed.  If you pick it up off the scale and set it down and it busts in half, unless foul play is suspected, the weight stands as official.

 

I guess my whole point is that we grow these for enjoyment.  If a person would rather enjoy getting an official record, then they might pick early or late to better their chances (and follow the basic guidelines for the state, Guinness, world, whatever, for making it official.)  I know Andrew’s ‘pumpkin morals’ would not allow him to do this, but not everyone has that conviction and dedication to the group of people at the weigh-off.  You are truly a noble person for having that kind of dedication to that group of individuals.  Just don’t mistake that as dedication to official record making.

 

Most of us just want to take our best fruit (no matter how small) to a weigh-off to chat with our friends and enjoy the camaraderie of pumpkin growers all over the world… we just do our best to have fun.  But don’t take away someone’s accomplishment just because they took extra precautions to make it official.

 

-Gus

 

-----Original Message-----
From: GardeningExpress [mailto:info@gardeningexpress.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 4:48 AM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: Alun

 

Ragardless of who is right or wrong, i think a couple of comments to alun are out of line, i'm not sure he'll even bother to respond. 

 

What i do know however is that we're not growing these for money, so it doesn't matter what date we weigh them on.