Giant pepper plants are a hit at the fair

For the past 12 years I have raised six foot pepper plants, loaded with peppers. The stalks are as big as corn stalks. I attribute this phenomenon to the variety, laparie, a large sweet frying or stuffing pepper, and Miracle-Gro fertilizer.
I have always had the desire to enter the Canfield Fair vegetable competition with one of my plants, but had been unable to until the 2005 fair. Last spring a long time friend, John Stull, suggested I buy an "earth box." I planted two laparie plants in this growing medium and they took off.
The plants were staked in the box and on Aug. 30 one had attained a height of six feet and the other five feet. The six-footer had 10 peppers, while the five-footer had 20. The tallest plant had a 10-inch red pepper weighing 11/2 pounds, while the shorter had a cluster off six red peppers.
My son-in-law John Vicarel and I delivered the exhibit to the fair in his truck. We traveled at a snail's pace, with flashers flashing, so as not to snap the brittle stalks. It was a 10-mile trip from my home to the drop-off site, the Grange and Vegetable Building.
Farmer Earl
Retired farmer Earl Slagle was there and said he had never seen anything like it. This comment coming from a farmer who raised 250,000 pepper plants a season in his pepper-growing days. That made me feel confident I had a shot at a ribbon.
I attended the fair on Friday, Senior Citizens Day -- no ribbon. On Sunday, my grandson, Patrick Krieger, received a phone call from a friend saying that there was a big ribbon on Grandpa's pepper plants. We checked it out and, indeed, there was a "Something to Crow About -- Outstanding Accomplishment" ribbon on it.
Craig Myers, director in charge of farm products at the fair, said it was a top award. To top it off, Weatherman Frank Marzullo of WFMJ-TV saw the exhibit at the fair and featured it on his morning show Sept. 15.
A person is never too old to win or lose a competition -- at least not at the age of 81.
X Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree. A collection of his columns has been published by Pig Iron Press under the title "Rag Man, Rag Man."