Photo: Riverside Public School student Moses Gumper Smith, 8, is feeling pretty happy with the pumpkin he lovingly grew and has submitted to the fair.
If you go to the Huntsville Fall Fair this weekend, do Moses Smith Gamper, 8, a favour and check out his pumpkin and all the other submissions.
Moses is the youngest of four siblings, and their mom, Anna, says she has instilled in them the love of planting and watching their own food grow.
“I have four kids ages 8-16 and I’ve always tried to garden with them. Moses was the one who helped the most this year, and he was so cute when he told me, “Mom, our garden makes our life here so amazing,” she said.
“The kids have always helped to plant a garden for our family and this year was the first year in 3 years that we were able to have a garden again. The kids all helped plant the garden and weed, etc, but Moses, the youngest, helped the most. He showed such impressive dedication in tending the garden, helping to weed, and took great pride in growing a wide range of vegetables, including the three pumpkins, the largest of which we have submitted to the Fall Fair, some massive zucchinis, 60 tomato plants, peppers, peas, beans, cucumbers, etc.”
She said everything the family grows is organic and comes from heritage seeds. “I’ve tried to instill the idea in the kids that it’s vital to know where our food comes from, and that it’s a joy to spend time tending the food that we put on the table. It’s so important to know where our food comes from, to avoid GMOs and pesticides, to save money, especially with skyrocketing food prices, and it’s also wonderful to experiment with heritage vegetables from around the world. The taste of these varieties is invariably so much better than the cardboard vegetables that we find in the supermarkets,” said Anna.
“When we planted the garden this year, I promised Moses that we would try our best to grow a pumpkin big enough to enter into the Fall Fair. We’re going to keep trying to grow bigger and bigger pumpkins each year!
“We love the Fall Fair because it’s one of the only places that we can experience the traditions from the early days of Huntsville when so many people lived an agricultural life around here. We love that it’s a place that celebrates people of all ages, including kids, to submit their creations, from crafts to vegetables. Moses has a great teacher this year at Riverside, Madame Giles, who is teaching the kids about agriculture in Ontario and about why fall fairs are important, and she had the kids create sock puppets to submit to the Fall Fair, which Moses also really enjoyed making.”
The Huntsville Fall Fair takes place this weekend.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Join the discussion: