Contest at Hensler’s Draws in Enormous Pumpkins
1st place Winner, Terry Marchand, 1,346 lb. pumpkin
Giant pumpkins stole the show this Saturday at the Indiana Pumpkin Grower’s Association’s annual Giant Pumpkin Weigh-in. Hensler’s hosted the event that brought out nine professional pumpkin growers with their home-grown pumpkins. Tipping the scale and taking the grand prize at 1,346 lbs. was a giant pumpkin grown by Terry Marchand of New Carlisle, Indiana.
The contest may be over, but stop by Hensler’s this Fall to purchase tickets for a horse drawn wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch where you’ll find acres of pumpkins ready for picking. It’s an opportunity to capture a few photos of your family finding the perfect pumpkin! In addition, our shops are open and we’re offering a lovely selection of mums, gourds and fall decorations.
Continue reading to find out about the other giant pumpkin growers and the gargantuan gourds they brought to the competition.
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Event Reminder: Giant Pumpkin Weigh-in Saturday, Sep. 20th
by John Hensler
The gurus of giant gourds will arrive at Hensler’s to face off in the ultimate pumpkin competition. The Indiana Pumpkin Growers Association kicks off Fall Fest when they bring their giant pumpkins for a weigh-in beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, September 20th. Past weigh-ins have featured entries between 170 to 1000 pounds.
These pumpkins are so big they have to be seen to be believed! We expect the competition to be an excellent photo opportunity as we find out which of those plump pumpkins reaches the top of the scale.
Find out more about the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-in
Speaking of photo opportunities, while you’re at Hensler’s you can buy tickets for a horse drawn wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch where you’ll find acres of pumpkins ready for picking. What a great opportunity to capture a few photos of your family finding the perfect pumpkin!
Our shops are open and we’re offering a lovely selection of mums, gourds and fall decorations. We know many of you share our enthusiasm for Christmas, so we’ve opened the Christmas Barn early this year where you can get a head start on your holiday shopping and decorating.
Video: We’re bringing out the fall decorations at Hensler’s
When you visit Hensler’s for Fall Fest, you’ll be able to find great decorations for your home like pumpkins, gourds, mums and hay bails. This weekend we began to set up our merchandise and we think we’ve got a great selection for the fallscapes and tablescapes in your home.
Hensler Nursery Prepares for Fall Fest
by John Hensler
Finally! It’s fall! We’ve been looking forward to the change of season so much this year that we’re hosting our own party. Officially, Fall All Over the Place, our 1st annual Fall Fest begins on Saturday, Sept. 13. Our celebration continues all the way through October, and we’ve already started to decorate our 40 acre farm, trails and barns.
Local crafter Donna Stanley created the Fall Fest figures. She has crafted many of the signs, figures, and peekers used at Hensler Nursery for Christmas Fest. Her craft pattern figures have a unique playfulness all their own.
Fall Fest will keep rolling into the following weekend with the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In on Saturday the 20th. We will host the Indiana Giant Pumpkin Growers and make our facility available for one of their fall weigh-in events. Participants of the pumpkin contest in the past have entered pumpkins that weigh between 170 lbs to nearly 1,000 lbs. Come out to Hensler’s for this unique event to view these sizable pumpkins!
Find out more about the Indiana Giant Pumpkin Growers weigh-in.
We’re offering wagon rides out to the pumpkin patch where you can select your own pumpkin. You can also enjoy horse trail rides on Friday nights and on the weekends. We’ve harvested a wonderful selection of mums and will have fall decorations like gourds and hay bails for sale. The Christmas Barn will also be open.
Grand Champion Fraser Fir at the Indiana State Fair
by John Hensler
Back in August we loaded our trailer with a Fraser fir and White pine and drove to the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis. Both trees were entered in the Open Class Christmas tree judging, and we were thrilled when our beautiful 7-1/2 foot Fraser fir was selected as grand champion out of the four classes of spruce, pine, fir and other species.
John Scheetz, a forester at Hensler Nursery, selected the 8 year old Fraser fir from our Starke County farm. When you’re in the Christmas tree business, you tend to think every tree is beautiful so we could have chosen any tree from the field. We’re pleased the judges thought the one we entered had the eye appeal of a grand champion.
We enjoy participating in this competition each year because of the exposure it gives to Indiana Christmas tree growers and real Christmas trees. Only real trees have that unbeatable fresh fragrance and unique beauty- we can’t imagine celebrating the holiday without one!
On the Route to the Blueberry Festival Parade
by John Hensler
The Marshall County Blueberry Festival has come and gone, but we sure did have fun while it lasted. With over 500,000 people in attendance, the festival is second only to the Indianapolis 500 in size for a weekend event. What’s not to love? Arts and crafts, tractor pulls and those amazing blueberry doughnuts- of course we wanted to join the crowds in Plymouth’s Centennial Park.
As much as we love all those sweet blueberry treats, it’s the parade that really gets our hearts pounding, and this year Hensler’s had the honor of participating in the Blueberry Festival parade. We shined up our 1961 Ford tractor and sent two floats down Michigan street to the beat of the high school marching bands.
Our two floats, one for Fall Fest and the other for Christmas Fest, represented how we like to celebrate the seasons. We’re hosting continuous festivities starting September 13th with Fall Fest which goes all the way through October. On November 1st we’ll make the transition to Christmas Fest which ends on Christmas Eve. Our floats are just a preview for the party we’re planning to host this year at Hensler’s.
We’re so proud of the work that went into making our floats. We had the opportunity to work with artist Mitch Markovitz who created the illustrations used on our banners. If you attended the parade, you may have realized that the boy on the Fall Fest banner looked very much like the boy waving to the crowd on the float. His name is Matthew and he’s Mitch’s son who has become our face of Fall.
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