Bounty

One of the things I love most about my neighborhood is all the quirky little events that happen. Every time something is happening around these parts the ear doctor and I slap a little sun screen on and hit the pavement.

And I can't believe that I didn't share this latest one with you. It was awesome.

Our neighborhood has it's own little weekly newspaper. Most of the time it's filled with stories about the plethora of marijuana dispensaries and how they are doing (our zip code as the most in all of Colorado!), but every now and then we get a little blurb about something rad that's going down. In the middle of August I heard about the annual largest zucchini contest and I knew I was going to get in on the action.

So I watered

and watered

and watered

On the day of the big weigh in I watched over my entry like a hawk...letting her plump up until the very last second, hoping I'd have a decent showing at the event. 10 minutes before the official cut-off for contest weigh-in I plucked my girl off the vine and headed over the the scale.

As soon as I spied the weigh-in table I knew I didn't have a chance. I mean, look at these beauties people had brought.

The lady in front of me had her two 8 lb ladies in a posh hand-woven basket and I was sure I was outclassed. While my contestant was longer that most in the competition, in the end she just didn't have the girth to bring home the blue ribbon.

Next year I'll start cultivating my lovely entrant earlier in the summer. That way I'll really be able to represent at next year's show-down. And I'm sure I'll love that big winning piece of produce next year, but, I have to be honest; no contestant will be quite as loved as my first year's 4.5 lb little zuke-that-could.