Cherries and cheer permeate festival
KRISTI NIEMEYER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years AGO
Lindell chases after her cherry pit while the eventual winner, Ava, solemnly prepares for her winning spit of two feet in the 5 and under category of the 2023 Pit-Spitting Contest. (Kristi Niemeyer/Leader)
Kristi Niemeyer learned her newspaper licks at weekly newspapers, beginning at the Mission Valley News in 1981, then at the helm of the Ronan Pioneer and, eventually, as co-editor of the Lake County Leader until 1993. She launched and co-published Lively Times, a statewide arts and entertainment monthly, before returning to the Leader in 2022, and serving as its editor until July 2026. Reach her at [email protected] | August 3, 2023 12:00 AM
Cherries weren’t the only delicacy on the menu at last weekend’s Flathead Cherry Festival, but they sure occupied center stage.
On Saturday afternoon, pit spitters gathered in front of the stage on 3rd Ave. to practice their pucker. According to the announcer, the world-record pit spit, set in 2004, was 93 feet, 6.5 inches. Polson’s winner in the 13 and older category managed to propel his cherry pit 40 feet, three inches – still a notable accomplishment.
The instructions were simple – pick out three cherries, and spit two. However, those in the 5 and under category found it a little daunting, with most managing to extract the pit from the cherry, and then spit it to the ground at their feet. The winning distance for that crew was around 24 inches.
The 6-12 age group took the challenge more seriously, flinging pits from 10 to 20 feet.
Each of the winners received a bag of cherries grown at Gateway Orchards.
One bystander noted that her daughter was visiting from out of state and insisted on watching the event. “Where else can you say you went to a pit-spitting contest?” she said.
On Sunday, judges Pat Gilmartin, Dana Johnston, James Lapotka and Ian Withrow had the enviable task of judging cherry-infused entries in the Foodie Competition. Winners were:
Best Sweet: Kimberly Ertle for her layered ice-cream cake
Best Savory: Kelly Barrett for a cherry faro salad
Best Pie: Tara Bowman
Best Commercial: The Struggling Chef (aka Dayone Brown)
A steady stream of visitors browsed 150 vendor booths and dined at a host of concession stands and food booths. They also showed a keen interest and accurate aim in dunking Mission Valley Ice Arena Association volunteers during this year’s popular dunk-tank fundraiser.
“We were thrilled with all the support, showing strong community endorsement of the ice arena project,” MVIAA Chair Hilary Lozar said. “We lost count of how many dunks, but people were very generous,” she added.
Lozar thanked the Chamber, and especially organizer Carol Lynn Lapotka, for positioning the tank in the sunshine of the vacant lot beside Mission Mountain Natural Foods, and the City of Polson for providing water.
On Saturday, Haeoak Newman and her crew from Oak’s Korean Kitchen set up on site and prepared delicious Korean sliders and other lunch options with all her sales going to benefit the arena fund.
“Actually, we had volunteers willing to get dunked to benefit the project,” Lozar added. “The weekend warm weather helped."
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