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At the Rhode Island Harvest Festival last month, Pawtucket farmer Steve Killansky won an unprecedented streak of blue ribbons for Biggest Pumpkin, Orangest Pumpkin, Roundest Pumpkin, Most Time Spent Harassing The Ribbon Committee and Go Home Steve.
“Pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins, that’s what I always say,” said Killansky of his multiple victories. “Pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins. Pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins.”
“I wasn’t kidding when I said I always say ‘Pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins,’” he added.
“Steve sure is a great farmer,” said Judge Mark Villaine. “He really cares for his pumpkins, and he is also currently camped out on my lawn with several pumpkins. What do you want from me, Steve? You have the ribbons!”
Killansky’s pumpkins were the only pumpkins in the running at this year’s Harvest Festival. Said 2011 winner Kendall Mackintosh, “My absence from the competition was due to several factors, including early frosts, family troubles, Steve Killansky showing up in tears on my doorstep and an especially persistent family of deer.”
In light of his recent successes, Killansky has taken a team of pumpkin-farming apprentices under his wing. “Steve is a very supportive mentor who is determined to teach us everything he knows and keep us on this pumpkin farm against our will,” said Tolman High School sophomore Chelsea Singh. “It’s a lovely place—the vines are thick, the pumpkins are sweet and the fence is electrified.”
The January-February issue of American Pumpkin magazine will feature Killansky in an article entitled, “Breakthrough Pumpkin-Farming Innovations and Please Get This Man Out of Our Editorial Offices.”
