Orchard to Hold Doughnut-Eating Contest on Saturday
The 'No Crumb Left Behind' cider doughnut eating competition is scheduled for Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Hilltop Orchards.
But he does not think he'd make a good contestant.
"I've been known to sit by the computer and eat five or six [doughnuts] on one or two occasions through the course of the day," David Martell said this week. "I probably haven't really had more than six.
"The other thing is I don't want to eat all the profits."
On Saturday at 5:30, 10 competitors will have a chance to test their limits in a race to see who can consume the most doughnuts in a 10-minute span. At stake: a dozen free doughnuts per month for one year to the winner.
Martell said Tuesday that Hilltop received about 25 submissions to participate in this year's competition. Ten entrants were chosen at random to earn a seat at the table.
One of them was Hinsdale's Jim Ouimette.
"I only heard about [the competition] this year for the first time," Ouimette said. "My wife pointed it out to me, and my daughters were in earshot. They started cracking up.
"I'm not a big guy — average size, average build — but I tend to eat a lot of cakes and sweets. On a whim, I just signed up for it to have some fun."
Saturday will mark Ouimette's first foray into the world of competitive eating, but he's quick to point out that "No Crumb Left Behind" is all in good fun.
"It's not like we're doing the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest," he said.
Of course, like that Coney Island tradition that dates back to the 1970s, the more modest Berkshire County version helps to build some brand awareness for the sponsor.
"There's a lot of different reasons we started it," Martell said. "People are always like, 'I can eat 12 of those, no problem.' The truth is, after the third or fourth one, it hits you.
"And there's this constant argument about who makes the best cider doughnuts in the Berkshires and all of Massachusetts, really. … Typically, an event like this gets the word out and it's a reminder to come pick apples, have cider doughnuts, enjoy hard cider, sweet cider, everything."
This year, the nascent mid-August tradition will offer a bright spot in what has been a challenging summer for agriculture in the region.
"I would say with all this heat and rain we've had, it's been a pretty deplorable season," Martell said. We do have a crop. We have enough apples for people to come and do pick-your-own. We'll be open for pick-your-own. We may run a few short for some of our hard cider, but we'll figure it out.
"It wasn't a good year for growing, that's for sure."
Win or lose on Saturday, Ouimette expects to be one of those customers coming back to pick apples when the harvest begins.
"I love Hilltop," he said. "It's a fantastic place. We do all our apple picking, pumpkin picking there.
"We've only lived out here for about nine years, but we have family ties here. And any time people from back in Boston come to visit us, especially in the fall, they want to go there. We have a good time with it."
Will those return trips include a dozen doughnuts on the house? Only time will tell, and Ouimette was not making any predictions.
That said, when it was pointed out that last year's winner downed 17 doughnuts in the 10 minutes allotted, Ouimette sounded optimistic about his chances.
"I don't want to jinx myself, but I don't think two doughnuts per minute is much of a stretch," he said. "I have not tried it before, but I don't see why I couldn't do it."
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