Homewood friends grow prize-winning pumpkins
First attempt for one nets amazing results
The Depression-erawork truck parked out front of theHomewood FarmersMarket on Oct. 3was emblazoned with the logo of the Civilian Conservation Corps. But while that symbol of Franklin Roosevelt’ s New Deal likely caught people’ s eyes, itwas the two behemoths in the truck’s bed that had passersby pulling out their phones to snap photos.
Together weighing nearly 500 pounds, the pumpkinswere fresh from winning second and third place at a giant pumpkin contest thatmorning in Lemont sponsored by the Cook County Farm Bureau.
Their successful showing at the contest at Puckerville Farmswas a surprise to Randy Oyster and John Sailor, both of Homewood. Though the contestwas in its 20th year, itwas the first time the two friends had entered.
Sailorwas particularly surprised.
“I can barely growgrass,” he said.“We plant store-bought tomatoes and do pretty well with those, but Iwouldn’t callmyself a gardener.”
Rather, like in the real estate business, it was all about location, location, location.
“We had the right place in the backyard for a vine,” Sailor said.
Oyster, on the other hand, didn’t feel
like he had the right place in his backyard. So, like a sort of latter-day Johnny Appleseed, or perhaps Randy Pumpkinseed, he dropped off some seeds with Sailor and started another pumpkin patch at a different friend’s property inHomewood.
“I just kind of threw them in the ground, and the next thing I knew I had 200-pound pumpkins,” Sailor said. “I only watered the thing once and thatwas like a week before I harvested it.”
Oysterwas a bit more meticulous, even making “compost tea” to help nurture his ravenous gourds.
He’d been growing large pumpkins for about a decade before deciding to make the leap into really, really large pumpkins.
“Bothmy boyswere still pretty young, and I bought a 100-pound pumpkin at a place in Country Club Hills,” he said. “The next year, instead of shelling out for another one of them, I took the seeds out. I had a
few seasonswere I had 100-plus-pound pumpkins, but they never got much bigger than that.”
He decided to go large or go home.
“Last year I ordered some seeds from a guy on the East Coast thatwere froma pumpkin thatwas 1,500 pounds or something like that, so thatwas the beginning of it.”
His first plants in 2019 only whetted his appetite. He got the seeds in “a little late,” he said, and still ended up with his largest pumpkin ever “in a short season.”
“The thing that caughtmy eyewas toward the end, this thingwas growing so fast, you’d check it every two or three days andwere like, ‘Wow, this thing gained another 25 pounds,’ ” he said. “Itwas just pretty incredible towatch howfast it grew. “So that gotme hooked.”
Sailor and Oysterweren’t alone. Bob Rohrer, director of the Cook County Farm Bureau, which sponsors the annual heaviest pumpkin contest, said even though this year’s event didn’t have the fun events
typically associatedwith it, such as a pumpkin dessert bake-offs and jack-o’lantern contests, there were nine adult entries and five youth contestants.
Alyssa Kochanny, of Romeoville, won the adult contest with a gourd that registered 724 pounds, and Jessica Miller, whowon in 2018 with a 378-pound gourd, won the youth division again this time with a 187-pound pumpkin.
“A lot of times you have that one pumpkin that you can tell by looking at it will outweigh the rest of them,” Rohrer said. “This time, Alyssa’s pumpkinwas obviously going to outweigh the rest. But there were a lot thatwere in the size range of Randy and John’s, between 125 and 242 pounds. You can’t always tell by looking which will be a heavier pumpkin.”
Kochanny came prepared, he said, with a
“strap mechanism” that enabled the pumpkin to be lifted by a loader tractor.
“Otherswe’ve done simply by a lot of people with strong backs picking it up on a strong blanket or tarp,” Rohrer said, “where everyone grabs a corner and lifts as hard as they can.”
The event’s recordwas set in 2015, when grower Stan Goreczny brought in a 1,115-pound monster.
It’s a goal Oyster and Sailor said they’re striving for nowthat they’ve dipped their toes into the giant pumpkinwaters. Both of their winning pumpkins came from Sailor’s yard, though the patch Oyster planted on his other friend’s lot had a promising start.
“Thiswas the year Iwas going to go all out and really get into growing a big one,” Oyster said. “But that pumpkin patch flooded out after a big rainstorm in June and all my pumpkins croaked.”
Meanwhile, the seeds he had given to Sailorwere thriving.
“I’d been throwing leaves and grass clippings in that area for the last 30 years, and apparently that’s good compost,” Sailor said.
And thatwas enough. “Iwas prodding him and telling him he needed to feed this thing, and he’s like ‘ah, whatever. You’re lucky if Iwater it,’ ” Oyster said. “Hewatered them that one time, and thatwas it.”
Still, the two friends are nowprizewinning pumpkin farmers. One of the award-winning pumpkins is on display onMartin Avenue in downtown Homewood, where the village’s farmersmarket is held.
The other 200-pluspound pumpkin is in front of Oyster’s home, though he doubts he’ll carve it.
“That’s a lot ofwork,” he said.
Instead, it has another destiny onceHalloween has come and gone.
“My sister has chickens, and they just tear it up,” he said. “They devour pumpkins. Picture 10 chickens on a pumpkin. I’d rather let them consume the whole thing than have a rotten pile of pumpkin guts lying around.”
But first, they’ll harvest the seeds.
“I’ve been bitten by the bug now,” Sailor said. “We’re going to try it again next year. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
Landmarks is aweekly column by Paul Eisenberg exploring the people, places and things that have left an indelible mark on the Southland. He can be reached at peisenberg@tribpub.com.