Joe Ailts, of Joze Giants Pumpkin Farm, located on county road 'T' just west
of Deer Park pauses for some conversation on Sunday, October 3.
Joe Ailts, of Deer Park, has just returned from Nekoosa, Wisconsin after
taking first place in the Giant Pumpkin Fest, on Saturday, October 2. This
year his winning entry weighed in at 1,016 pounds, last year his
record-breaker pumpkin weighed in at 1,056. Cool summer weather slowed this
year's entry but it was still good enough for the winning prize.
Joe says work on next year's pumpkins have all ready begun and he hopes to
break a record. Yes, he does have regular pumpkins for sale, the type that
will fit on a kitchen table, not crush it.
Give him a call at 715-248-4723 for his available
stock and prices.
Great pumpkins: Ailts grows them
Thursday, October 07, 2004
By Dave Newman , New Richmond News staff reporter
dnewman@rivertowns.net
Great pumpkins. Nobody in Wisconsin grows them greater than Joe Ailts.
Ailts, of rural Deer Park, had the largest pumpkin at the Great Pumpkin Fest,
held in Nekoosa on Saturday. This is the second straight year that Ailts has
produced the largest pumpkin at this competition, which brings in pumpkins
from all over the Midwest.
Last year Ailts had the largest pumpkin with a fruit that weighed 1,056
pounds, his personal best. His largest this year was 1,016 pounds, the only
fruit at the competition to clear 1,000 pounds. Ailts also had the fourth
largest pumpkin at this year’s event, with a fruit that weighed 905
pounds.
The two large pumpkins earned Ailts $1,200 in prize money on Saturday. But
his payday wasn’t over. A professional sculptor bought both of his
prize pumpkins for a total of $1,600. The larger pumpkin will be on display
at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. The other will be shown in a mall near
Chicago.
Ailts said there were many fewer pumpkins at the competition this year,
saying this was not a prime growing year for the fruit. He said the Great
Pumpkin Fest in Nekoosa has become quite an event, drawing about 20,000
people on Saturday.
One of the toughest parts of the project is getting the pumpkins off the
ground. Each Friday night before the Pumpkin Fest, Ailts throws a party at
his home. Everyone at the party can get photos with the big pumpkins. Then 10
guys help him tip each pumpkin onto a pallet, and a neighbor with a front end
loader lifts the pumpkins onto a trailer.
Upon returning home, Ailts started his planning for the 2005 growing
season. He was tilling up his gardens and adding manure and mulch to replace
nutrients lost during this growing season. He is also planning to add wind
protection before next season.
The seeds he is planning to use are from the pumpkins he grew this
year.
“This year we had some really good crosses and I think they have
really good potential,” Ailts said.
