Growers in the giant veggie world honor Hank Houston
Growers of massive melons and gargantuan gourds paused at the State Fair of Virginia this year to remember a giant among them, Hank Houston of Spotsylvania County.
Houston, 59, died suddenly of a heart attack in June, leaving behind his wife and high school sweetheart, Sharon, two children, five grandchildren and a coast-to-coast network of likeminded producers of giant pumpkins, squash and watermelons.
Growers at the Virginia fair shared condolences with Houston's family and presented a plaque in his memory. The Hank Houston Hefty Harvest will be given annually to the producer who has the highest score for items submitted and how they fared in competition.
Paul Jarosh of Culpeper County received the inaugural award and said it meant more to him than all the blue ribbons he collected. And he got quite a few: firsts for a 196.6-pound bushel gourd, 107.6-inch-long gourd and 1.9-pound tomato; second for a 48.2-pound butternut squash; third for a 49.4-pound field pumpkin; and sixth for a 145-pound watermelon.
"Hank was a great guy, and I was quite taken back by getting that award," Jarosh said. "I knew how big an impact he had in the giant veggie community."
At the State Fair of Virginia's Giant Veggie Weigh-Off, Houston handled the paperwork, inspected the entries and kept the competition on track.
"You know how they say you don't realize how much someone has an impact on things until they're gone?" Jarosh asked, adding how much that applied in Houston's case and how his death affected growers across the country. "He was well-intertwined within the whole growing community from coast to coast."
The State Fair of Virginia runs through Sunday at The Meadow Event Park in Caroline County.
Houston, a contractor, got the idea to "grow 'em big" in 2011 and bought seeds and a video from a Minnesota man. Houston had a problem with groundhogs his first season in 2012, but still managed to grow an almost 500-pound pumpkin that ripened too early for competition, his wife said.
As the years passed, his knowledge grew along with his vines and equipment. He installed heating cables and huts to protect the young plants, then put in center poles to shade them. He expanded his growing area with a long gourd trellis and added an irrigation system.
Houston also started setting State Fair records, including one in 2015 for a giant white pumpkin that weighed 1,340.7 pounds — well over half a ton.
He got pointers from Davis Wells in Mechanicsville on growing watermelons and started breaking records in that department, too. His personal best was a 276-pound watermelon, one of four whoppers he grew in 2022.
Wells is 20 years older than Houston, but the two become close friends, developing a bond that went beyond gardening.
"He was my No. 1 friend in the world, I can tell you that," Wells said. "He was just a super guy and I miss him more than anything."
The two developed a friendly competition over the years, even though each was the first the other called for advice on plant diseases or help with loading up giant gourds.
Wells earned seven consecutive blue ribbons from 2007-13, two more in 2015 and 2016 and dreamed of having the 10th one on the watermelon wall of honor, when Houston knocked him off the leaderboard in 2017.
"Hank was the only one that kept knocking me off. He'd beat me just a little bit then come on and harass me—all in good fun," Wells said in a news release from the Virginia Farm Bureau.
Wells thought he had the top watermelon last year, but darned if Houston didn't beat him again, with one weighing 224 pounds.
Wells got his 10th ribbon at this year's fair with a 246-pound watermelon, which he cultivated in a 10-foot raised bed in his backyard. Houston's wife brought a few entries her husband had planted before his death and she looked over for him, including a 191-pound watermelon that placed fifth.
Houston and Wells rode together to competitions near and far and Wells kept thinking about his friend as he prepared to make a trip to North Carolina this weekend without him.
"Every time I look at my back door, I see Hank," Wells said.
Houston enjoyed the weekly phone calls with Wells and regular interaction with others who were just as passionate about pumpkins and other big veggies and fruit as he was.
"My husband loved the challenge of growing giant vegetables but he also loved the growing community and sharing knowledge with other growers," his wife said.
Cathy Dyson
(540) 374-5425
Health, King George, features and is a local columnist
