A huge thank you to everyone on the Bowfest board and all the community volunteers and sponsors who helped to organize and run another great community festival that was enthusiastic and fun for all ages, despite a little bit of rain at the start.
I, along with other BAA (Bowen Agricultural Alliance) volunteers were happy to help the tradition of the country fair tent running. There was a great mix of farmers’ market vendors selling products made, grown and baked on Bowen. Other tables groaned under the weight of more than a dozen gargantuan zucchinis, photos of slugs, Lego and textile creations, very weird looking fruits and vegetables and more.
Country fair contest winners included:
Lego designs: first place: Zac Murray, second place: Maya Gauvin, third place: Sarah Parker. Fibre arts finest prize went to Bonita Schaly for her tentacular creation.
The adult weirdest vegetable award went to my own trombone zucchinis while the youth gardeners with the strangest root vegetables were Alisa and Michaela Schaly and their strange octo-carrots.
The animal drawing contest winners were youth Maya Gauvin and Chloe Gauvin.
The Bowen Island Community School student garden club grew the tallest sunflower this year.
The biggest zucchini contest: first place went to Jessica Mitts for the second year in a row for her beastly 9.5 lb. zuke. Second place went to Elena Vilis and her 8 lb. green monster. While third place went to Aine Corrigan-Frost and her surprise, found-in-a-pot-on-the-porch 6.2 lb. zucchini. Youth winners were Livea and Lochlan who grew a magnificent 7.5 lb. orange zucchini with the help of their father Scott Stevenson. Second place went to Dalia Lafferty for “the big beast” 6 lb. zucchini and Kaija Ryder Flory for a 5.5 lb. zucchini.
Congratulations to the more than a dozen gardeners who managed to grow the behemoth squash despite the deer, drought, birds, slugs, rats, smoke and other agricultural challenges we had this year on Bowen.
Speaking of slugs, we held three races due to their popularity. A number of slug-jockeys, ages one to 63, showed up with their racing terrestrial gastropod molluscs. Races lasted 20 minutes (the length of a ferry ride) and whichever three slugs were closest to the finish line (and still on the race-track) were declared the winners. All three slug varieties found on Bowen Island (Leopard, Banana and Black Arion) were at the races and the excitement was palpable.
Some people video-recorded the races (sure to be a home-movie favourite, or perhaps a meditative piece) and one race required a photo-finish to determine the winners. Adam’s “Bobby Joe” won the first race, second place went to Charlotte’s “Cat” and third place to Isaac’s “Lucky the slug.” The second race was particularly thrilling with Zac’s “Banany” crossing the finish line in eight minutes and 42 seconds, making it the second-fastest win ever. Second place went to Eleah’s “Bob” and third place to Silver’s “Abigail.” The third race was won by Eloise’s “Sluggy,” second place went to Lilliana’s “Cutie,” and third place went to Phoebe and Kelly’s “Wren.” Honourable mentions go to “Eugene” and “Sir Sluggington” for creative names and because they were fan favourites during the cheering. All the racing slugs were well cared for and returned to whence they came at the end of the races.
Irly sponsored the country fair tent, with many thanks for keeping this original Bowfest tradition going and growing for the delight of the youth and the young at heart on Bowen Island.
