Chuck McGowan of Unadilla’s vegetable collection was selected best overall vegetable exhibit.

Despite a late start to the growing season and a recent heat wave, Otoe County exhibitors entered a good selection of flowers and agricultural products Saturday morning, Aug. 9, the day before the start of the 2008 Otoe County Fair.

“The flower entries look beautiful. There’s a lot of nice beautiful arrangements,” said Charlotte Wood, Palmyra, flower show chairman. However, she said that the total number of entries was likely down from last year.

“It seemed like for a while they didn’t want to grow, but they finally did. It was a different season,” said Freda Hoffman, Syracuse, flower entrant.

Evelyn Boyd, Nebraska City, said that her flowers grew pretty well. Boyd said that she had to put up a fence to keep the deer away so she could enter some gladioluses.

Marion Diers, Syracuse, said that the heat hurt her flowers. “They didn’t do anything when it got so hot,” Diers said.

Lynett Talcott, Bennet, said that her flowers were pretty good but the grasshoppers were working on them recently.

Crop entries

Many of those bringing in crop entries over the weekend said they experienced a variety of problems this growing season.

Cindy Shannon, superintendent of agricultural products, fruits and bees and honey said that entries were pretty good, but that everyone said that the crops were kind of late this year. With the late frost, that made a difference, she said.

“Everything was slow to develop. There was so much rain early. They’ve done good the last three weeks. They were slow to start and are coming along good. The insect problem was probably a little less than in other years, but is showing up now,” said Gary and Tami Garey.

“Our garden didn’t do good with the rains and strong winds. It hurt the tomatoes and peppers, but we like to do it. The kids like to get in the dirt,” said Gerri Harden, Burr.

“The tomatoes were horrible. They got fungus on them. The green beans were pretty good. The potatoes were not to bad,” said Ruby Lutjemeyer.

“The sunflowers were good, the tallest we ever raised. The pumpkins were not as big as usual,” said Arlyn Werner, Syracuse.

“The crops were a little behind and a little late,” said Matt Schutz, Otoe, whose family entries included a tallest cornstalk.

“The onions and potatoes were outstanding. The pumpkins died and I don’t know why. The muskmelon is not maturing. The early cool weather made it tougher for crops to mature,” said Rick Nordhues, Syracuse, whose family entered a number of crops.