Horticulture teacher drives 30 hours with car-sized pumpkin in bid to smash world record
Growers of giant pumpkins and their colossal gourds will gather on Monday in Northern California for an annual weighing competition, vying for the top award and a chance to challenge a world record set just last week in England.
At least 30 growers have registered for the 53rd World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, according to event spokesman Ronan Fowler.
Among those competing is four-time champion Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Minnesota whose winning run ended last year when he couldn’t enter because his pumpkin split while still growing.
Gienger, who navigated freezing temperatures this growing season, produced a pumpkin with a circumference large enough to make it a potential world-record contender, Fowler said.
Fowler mentioned last week that Gienger and his father intended to alternate behind the wheel during a 30-hour drive over the weekend to deliver the small-car-sized pumpkin to California.
Ian Paton of Lymington, on the southern coast of England, set the existing world record with a giant squash weighing 2,857 pounds (1,296 kilograms). That figure exceeds the combined weight of two-and-a-half concert grand pianos.
Paton raises his massive gourds in a greenhouse, while Gienger cultivates his entries in a backyard pumpkin patch in Anoka, a city along the Mississippi River north of Minneapolis, Fowler noted.
“The fact that Travis can weather the elements, like 30-degree weather, and still grow this massive pumpkin is pretty unbelievable,” the spokesman said.
Brandon Dawson, a resident of Santa Rosa, California, who won first place last year with a massive pumpkin weighing 2,346 pounds (1,064 kilograms), will also compete in the contest.
The winning grower this year will earn $9 for each pound of pumpkin and will have their giant gourd displayed during a parade through Half Moon Bay over the weekend. Should the winning entry surpass the world record, the competitor will receive an additional $30,000 prize.
Monday’s proceedings, which mark the beginning of the city’s autumn celebrations, will also feature a special appearance by pumpkin carver Mike Valladao.
However, these giant gourds are grown for size rather than flavor, so no oversized pumpkin pies will be served at the end of the event.
