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Howard Dill 1991
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In 1990 I had the wonderful experience of visiting Nova Scotia and Howard Dill at his farm.
My brother, Farmer Ben Allnutt, had 'introduced' me to Howard Dill and his famous Atlantic Giant Pumpkins about 1989 when I drew his name for Christmas. "What would you like for Christmas this year Ben?" To which he replied, “The seeds to the largest pumpkin." In response to my stunned look he gave me a cut out ad with Howard Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkin Seeds ordering information. I really did feel sort of like a character in Jack In The Beanstalk nursery tale when I presented brother Ben with several seeds for Christmas.
But! The next summer the biggest pumpkin I've ever seen 'appeared' in the field. What fun it was to watch that plant grow. Quite an experience, especially since our pumpkin that year only got to be about 360 pounds. Nothing compared to the winners these days that are well over 1,000 pounds.
The Fall of 1990 my aunt Helen, from Georgia, travelled with me to visit Nova Scotia. Neither of us had been there, and a trip seemed like a great idea. We flew through Boston (and visited there a bit) before flying to Nova Scotia and renting a car. What a lovely area! Picturequese... friendly and gracious. They have really got tourism arranged well. There are Tourist Information buildings about every 20 miles, and they are manned with REAL people who actually KNOW information about the area! What a concept! |
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It was not my intention to barge in on Howard Dill, but we WERE in Windsor. So while asking about things to see in Windsor at the Tourist Information Office, Helen inquired about Howard Dill. The gentleman running the Information Office said that of course, he knows Howard. Well Helen
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Anne Allnutt chats with Howard Dill
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proceeded to tell him the whole Christmas seeds gift story and how thrilled we were with the pumpkins. He then said “Well my wife works with Howard's wife, let me call and see if you can go over there" and that's how my impromtu visit was arranged. Since this happened well over 15 years ago, I don't remember everything, but I do remember asking how I would recognize the farm after being instructed to "go down that road." The answer was something like, "Well, you'll know it!"
Ha! I love that kind of cryptic sentence.
And so it was that Helen and I, in our rented car, drove down 'that road' looking for Howard Dill's farm. As I said before, the countryside is beautiful! Hills and small roads everywhere. Fishermen standing in tiny slips of a creek in waders - fishing for salmon! Can you believe it!? But anyway, back to the story... After about 4 miles, there it was, the clue we'd been looking for — a HUGE giant pumpkin near a mailbox (with a large crack in it, of course). |
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Howard Dill shows us his pumpkin patch; portable greenhouses; wind-blocks and all.
Did you know that on his farm is the pond where the game of Ice Hockey was invented? The National sport of Canada. Yes! Really!
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| After putting away their Beware-Of-Dog Afghan hound, Howard and his wife showed us photos of some of their prize winning Atlantic Giant pumpkins. The trophies and ribbons were everywhere.
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Yes, even some of Howard's pumpkins developed cracks. This is a 700 pound pumpkin that developed a crack that they just couldn't fix. Ah well, that's the way it goes. |
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| Our visit with Howard was great. A quiet spoken, affable man, he reminded me so much of the many farmers I've grown up around. Truly the salt-of-the-earth sort of man - well I can't say enough about him, he was so nice to us. His wife (whose name escapes me 15 years later - sorry!) came home and we went into the house (after their enormous hound was put safely away) and it was as though we were neighbors coming to visit. I'm not sure how long we stayed, but we saw photos of the huge pumpkins that they've nurtured over the years, prizes that they'd won. It was a wonderful time, and I appreciate their gracious kindness and time. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Howard Dill for a memorable visit!
Sincerely,
Anne Allnutt
Homestead Farm Web Staff
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