814-Lincaster Farming, Saturday, Octobar 23,1993
Record Setters
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
YORK (York Co.) Bemic
Lehman is in the market for some
apple trees. But the Wrightsville
fruit grower doesn’t want just any
kind of apple trees, he is specifi
cally. searching for a variety
named Eve’s Delight
A single Eve’s Delight apple
tree grows in the nearly four acres
of fruit orchards on the Ellsworth,
Jr., and Kathy Lehman family’s
dairy, crops and produce farm at
Wrightsville R 2. This year, it pro
duced a whopping 2.49-pound
fruit that broke all previous apple
records at the York Fair, besting
about 10 other hefty-sized apples
in the running for the title.
Lehman has been entering pro
duce in York Fair for several
years, some of it In friendly com
petition with a neighboring grow
er. Last year, his uncle, John Leh
man, won the fair’s biggest apple
category with a 2.18-pounder
from a Stark’s variety tree in his
Heliam Township orchard.
Bcmie Lehman set out to beat
that.
"We’ve always thinned this tree
to get good size on the apples; we
just thinned it a little harder this
year,” says Lehman. “Usually, the
apples grow to about a pound and
a half.”
In quest of extra-large apples,
all but IS to 20 fruits were
removed from the dwarf Eve’s
Delight tree early in the summer.
Neighboring trees were thinned
just a bit harder, as well, to assure
plenty of light reaching the poten
tial prizewinners. The 10-year-old
tree was irrigated along with the
rest of the orchard during a few
dry spells, but received no other
special treatment.
Bemie did check it regularly,
though, observing two apples ear
ly in the season that were outsiz
ing the others.
“I did pick it a little early, to
make sure it didn’t fall off and
onto the ground,” he relates.
“When we weighed it, we figured
it would be close to being a
winner.”
Like all the York Fair produce
entries, only numbers identify the
winners. Bemie recognized his
winner right away, displayed in a
glass-covered case. But the wrong
name was initially given out to
local newspapers. A phone call by
his dad corrected the error and got
Bemie his award.
Along with the champion apple,
Bemie took blue ribbons on his
Jack-Be-Little pumpkins, string
beans, cucumbers, peppers and
various awards on other produce
entered.
The Lehmans retail their pro
duce at their farm roadside mark
et, just north of Route 30 at
Wrightsville.
“The big apples sell almost as
soon as we sit one out, usually
within a few hours,” says Bemie,
of their customers’ interest in the
giant fruits. His record-setter,
refrigerated on display at the farm
market for a few weeks following
the fair, ripened quickly. By early
October it was beginning to show
signs of bruising and was ear
marked for one last round of
enjoyment by the family in a
pic.
Next year, Bemie plans to thin
the tree even a little harder. In fact,
he jokes that if he could find a few
more of the Eve’s Delight variety,
he would grow one apple per tree,
aiming at breaking the world’s
record set by a 2.73 pound
Washington state-grown one.
Meanwhile, the York Fair’s
largest-ever pumpkin, weighing in
at a whopping 37S pounds, is cur
rently in use as a fall-season
decoration.
Sam Brubaker, Sunrise Court,
Lebanon, grew the monstrous
pumpkin in one of two hills he
planted in a small plot behind his
home. Brubaker, who cultivates
only a few pumpkins in a small
backyard garden set out to grow a
record-setter.
“We always visit the York Fair;
and a couple of years ago, he
looked at the giant pumpkins and
said T can do that’,” relates Sam’s
wife, Audrey, who was admittedly
skeptical at the time. “He's not a
gardener, otherwise.”
Nevertheless, Brubaker began
planting a couple of hills of pump
kins in the rich soil of their yard.
Last year’s effort showed prom
ise, Audrey recalls, until one day
her husband checked the progress
of his largest pumpkin and found
the back of it rotted away from the
season’s extreme moisture.
Brubaker’s plans for this sea
son’s planting initially went awry
when the seeds he sent for never
came in the mail. Two hills of
“just a pack of pumpkins seeds”
were then planted, but later than
originally intended. Some pack-
Sam Brubaker sits on his 375-pound pumpkin, a prize-
winner at this year’s York Fair.
Herb Group Forming
ELIZABETHTOWN (Lancas
ter Co.) A new herb group is
forming on Monday, November 8
from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Herit
age House Museum, 43 E. High
Street, Elizabethtown.
The top for discussion at the first
meeting is rosemary, its - history
and uses. The group will meet once
a month beginning in January.
There is no charge to attend or
belong to the group.
The meeting is sponsored by the
Radon In The Home
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
To find out about radon, what
radon is, its health effects, how
you can test for it, and what you
can do about it, plan to attend
“Radon in the Home: Myths and
Realities,” an educational prog
To Produce Pies Aplenty
aged diy manure worked into the
soil and occasional fertilizer feed
ings kept two giant, and one
smaller, fruits growing through
the season. Only an occasional
boost of drip irrigation was given
during dry spells.
“He had read that for every leaf
a pumpkin has, it grows a certain
number of pounds,” says Audrey
Brubaker of her husband’s
pumpkin-growing technique. By
pinching back the vines, they were
confined to (he small growing area
while concentrating their strength
into producing a few large fruits.
By early summer, the eventual
winner was already good-sized.
Sam checked it every evening
after work and Audrey took
pictures of it every weekend.
“It took six guys to get it on the
truck,” chuckles Audrey Brubaker
of the difficulty in loading the
huge pumpkin, moved onto a
wooden pallet, to haul it to York
for the fair competition.
While the couple would like to
keep the pumpkin for Farm Show
display, they were uncertain it
would store that long without
rotting.
“We know a lady who bakes for
a living; it may eventually go there
Herb Garden Committee of the
Heritage House Museum.
The committee offers tours of
the Museum garden in season,
offers demonstrations on the uses
of herbs during the monthly Herit
age Days and special workshops,
and creates a wide variety of herbal
items sold during the Museum’s
Christmas Craft Show, December
3 and 4.
For more information, call (717)
367-4908.
ram presented by Penn State
Cooperative Extension. The prog
ram will be held on Thursday,
November 4, from 7 to 9 p.m. at
the Farm and Home Center, 1381
Arcadia Road, Lancaster. To
register call (717) 394-6851.
for her use," speculates Audrey of
the pumpkin’s ultimate fate as a
probable and plentiful pie
source. She adds that the “meat”
of the pumpkin variety is very
thick and a deep orange color. The
’■baby” one at an estimated near SO
pounds may entertain neighbor
hood youngsters as a Halloween
jack o’lantem.
Sam’s goal, his wife notes, is to
grow the largest pumpkin in the
state. He has received numerous
tips on growing giant pumpkins,
including the advice to feed the
Weighing in at 2.49 pounds, Bernle Lehman’s prizewin
ner set a new apple record at the York Fair. The giant
dwarfs the normal-sized Red Delicious stacked In the crate
beneath.
Pork Recipes
(Continued from Pago B 8)
HOT SAUSAGE
2 pounds sausage, stuffed
1 large onion
1 16-ounce jar cherry peppers
Cut sausage into pieces about
the size of a hot dog. Slice down
the middle, lengthwise. Place in
frying pan and brown. Drain off
excess grease. Cut onion in slices
and add to the sausage. Add cherry
peppers and the juice from the
cherry peppers. Simmer approxi
mately 4S minutes. Serve on hot
dog rolls.
Doris Brenize
Shippensburg
CRUSTY HAM PATTIES
3 cups coarsely ground cooked
ham
1 egg
9-ouncc can crushed .pineapple
'/i teaspoon salt
A teaspoon cinnamon
'A teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
l A cup crushed cornflakes
'/ cup drippings
Combine ham with lightly
beaten egg, well drained pineap
ple, seasonings, and sweet pota
toes. Shape into 12 patties. Dip in
cornflakes and fry in hot fat until
well browned on both sides, for
five to eight minutes.
Esther Stauffer
Port Trevorton
plants milk. The milk is believed
to enhance pumpkin growth
because of the added calcium
available to the plant.
“Oh, yes. he'll save the seeds
from this one,” affirms Audrey
Brubaker of her husband's plans
for next spring’s pumpkin patch.
“He’s been teasing his friends that
he’ll sell them some of the seeds.”
A third York Fair record setter
was a 20-pound cantaloupe, which
unfortuantely rotted while on dis
play. It was grown by Dean Beck
er, Spring Grove R 2.
ZESTY GRILLED CHOPS
s /« cup soy sauce
'/< cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon chili sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
6 rib or loin pork chops
Combine the first rive ingre
dients. Place chops into a glass
baking dish and pour marinade
over. Cover and refrigerate 3 to 6
hours or overnight. To cook,
remove chops from marinade and
grill or broil 4 inches from heat to
desired doneness. Brush occas
sionally with the marinade. Yield:
6 servings.
Doris Mellot
Needmore
PORK CHOP RECIPE
6 pork chops
4 unpeeled apples, cored- and
sliced
'A cup brown sugar
Vi teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
Brown chops in skillet until
browned on both sides. Place
sliced apples in a greased baking
dish. Sprinkle brown sugar on
apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Dot with butter. Arrange six pork
chops on top of apples. Cover and
bake at 350 degrees for 114 hours.
Mrs. Carl Christ
(Turn to BIS) Plne Grove