Upo Festival brings fun to backyard veggies farming

And the Longest Upo goes to…

Winnipeg’s Filipino community came together this weekend to celebrate passion for backyard farming and love of vegetables in the second annual Upo Festival

Upo Festival is the counterpart of the Rural Manitoba Pumpkin festival. according to Leila Castro of 204 Filipino Forum and Market Place which organized the event.

Upo, with English name Bottle Gourd, is a popular vegetable among Asians and Filipinos with elongated shape, which like pumpkins , can grow to be really big or very long.

Ito is one of the most common vegetables grown by any Filipinos househol in their backyard during summer.

Last year’s winner for the longest upo is also the winner this year.

Twenty-one year old Brix del Carmen’s upo hailed the longest measuring 94.5 inches.

The heaviest Upo belongs to Joel Sangil – which is 19.88 pounds.

Both Brix and Joel went home with $1000 cash.

Aside from the longest and heaviest upo as major categories, special categories were also created with surprise prizes for unique/weird vegetable size or shape.

The family event also consisted of acrylic painting workshop and kids art work contest.

Another highlight of the event is the ceremonial community cooking of a giant pot of Filipino vegetable dish Pinakbet wich saw some celebrity members of the community came together to chop ingredients.

There was also a Farmers Market where attendees sold or exchanged their produce with others.

The fun event at Maples Multiplex was well-attended by more than a hundred and hopefully will become a summer tradition in Winnipeg.

(PHOTO CREDIT: 92.7 FM CKJS would like to thank Nonie Manalili for letting us share his beautiful photos)