SYRACUSE – Onions continued to provide the drama at the 2022 Otoe County Fair’s open class garden show, where Bob Brandt was defending his largest onion title against perennial premier gardener Duane Hansen.

Judge Duane Novahec of Walton introduced a digital scale to the show in 2018, when Hansen won the the coveted $20 prize for the biggest onion.

Duane Hansen triumphed again Wednesday with a 1 lb 15.4 oz onion and retains his title as premier gardener after placing 24 times with 41 entries.

Hansen: “Just plant a lot of stuff and you have to have good dirt. Work on your dirt. And, I got a high water bill.”

His largest onion was not without  controversy, however, with Brandt a close second.

Novahec teased: “He (Brandt) got beat by a kind of ... an overripe onion, that maybe could have been disqualified if the superintendent (also Brandt) wanted to.”

Novahec said quality also matters in the largest vegetable competition.

Novahec: “I was reading that vegetables should be close to – overripe is the worst – and then they should be ready to ripen soon or are ripe.”

Hansen’s 2022 onion weighed less than seven ounces below the county record set by the Brandt family prior to 2013  at 2 lbs 6 ozs.

 

Brandt says the secret is the timing for getting healthy plants into the soil.

Local folklore has it that biochar holds carbon dioxide in the ground, which benefits onion growth up to the summer solstice. Onions picked prior to the fair should dry under cover of wood chips, rather than straw because straw can rot onions.

This year’s onions may have also benefited from the spring weather, despite a mid-May frost for some Otoe County gardens.

Novahec: “We had cool weather and then it warmed up. It was a rainy season for a while there and then it got hot. Humidity was high at different times and that makes it hard on pollination.”

He  said the onions preferred the cooler spring and it showed again at the fair.

The rundown for Hansen’s exhibits include the largest watermelon at 32.6 pounds, the largest cabbage at 7.4 lbs and largest tomato at 15.3 oz. He also showed the largest pumpkin and largest beets.

Carrie Simon of Syracuse has the largest cucumber at 2 lbs 1.5 ozs and Dan Swanson had the largest pepper at 7.1 ozs.