Good gourd! 2,350-pound pumpkin wins California contest
Hail to the new pump-king.
A pumpkin that weighs more than a ton won a contest in California on Monday.
Travis Gienger, a Minnesota horticulturalist, put his quarantine time last spring to good use: growing the largest pumpkin he could. After months of watering and fertilizing, Gienger trucked his monstrous melon just south of San Francisco to the 47th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay.
When his pumpkin went on the scales, it weighed an eye-whopping 2,350 pounds, good for a $7-a-pound prize.
“It was nerve-wracking because with every bump on the road I kept thinking, ‘is it going to make it?’” And then finally it got weighed, it was the last one, and oh, my gosh, it’s been incredible!" Gienger told the Associated Press.
Despite taking home $16,450 in prize money, Gienger said he wasn’t sure he would be entering next year’s contest because of all the work that went into cultivating the bulbous behemoth.
“I might need a year off from the work and the nerves and everything,” he said.
Following the contest, the pumpkin was paraded around the town of Half Moon Bay in celebration.
With News Wire Services
