The "Grower Of The Year Award" Story

It was an ordinary day.  The pumpkin king is proud and boastful, hellbent on a dynasty of huge gourds, years after year, after ascending to the world's throne last week.  Dave and Carol Stelts, giant pumpkin growers from Western Pennsylvania, won the much-coveted "Grower of the Year" (GOTY) at the 29th annual Ohio Valley giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-off weighing three pumpkins that totaled 7,729 pounds.  Hard to close your eyes and see something that huge in size.  That's about the size of an African elephant!  Stelt's largest pumpkin - 2,731.5 pounds - was just 18 pounds shy of the current U.S. and world record.  "We absolutely slayed it," Dave, 65, told the Inquirer on October 18.  Last month, the Inquirer spent a day at Stelt's "Valley of Giants" farm in Enon Valley, about 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh in Lawrence County, where he obsessed over the states of his giants, which were still on the vine, and whether he would defeat his biggest rivals, the Paton Brothers, who grow pumpkins along the southern coast of England.  They're all friendly rivals, prone to rib one another every chance they can.  During that visit, Stelts made it clear the GOTY award was his mission, not the world record.  While his home was filled with dozens of ribbons, pumpkin-shaped trophies and fake, giant checks, the GOTY was a void in his life.  Stelts said the world record could be a fluke, a stroke of luck.  Grower of the year is awarded to the competitor whose top three pumpkins weigh the most.  Last month, Stelts hinted that winning the GOTY might prompt him to retire and take Carol on a summer vacation, finally.  The award seems to have only fueled his pumpkin passion, though.  He's not going to let the Patons take his throne.  "Oh yeah, I have to keep beating those limeys," he said.  The Paton brothers couldn't immediately be reached for comment.   "They weren't as heavy as they thought and we were heavier than we thought," Stelts said.  When the Inquirer spoke with Ian Paton last month, he described giant pumpkin growing as a "sickness" and mentioned his quest to break the 3,000-pound mark.  "None of his is normal," he said.  It was another extraordinary day in  life of an ordinary guy.