HALF MOON BAY, Calif. –
A Minnesota horticulture professor set a new U.S. record for the heaviest pumpkin on Monday after raising a giant gourd weighing 2,560 pounds.
Travis Gienger, of Anoka, Minnesota, set the new record and won an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California.
“Minnesota has a great mid-year, but our spring in our regions is really, really tough. So to do that in Minnesota, that just shouldn’t happen,” Gienger said. “It’s like winning the Tour de France on a Ferris wheel. You know, you can only hope, but it worked.”
Gienger rode the gargantuan gourd for 35 hours to see his hard work pay off at the 49th World Pumpkin Weigh Championship in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.
“You think driving in a snowstorm is bad? Try driving one of these things,” he said.
Gienger, who also won the same competition in Northern California in 2020, broke a record set last week in New York where a grower raised a huge pumpkin weighing 2,554 pounds.
An Italian producer holds the world record for the heaviest pumpkin. He grew a 2,702-pound squash in 2021, according to Guinness World Records.