Big prize money: See moment new U.S. heaviest pumpkin record was set in California
The gourd weighed 2,560 pounds. The prize money was $23,000. The winner was a horticulture teachers from Minnesota.
And the place was Half Moon Bay, California.
Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota set a new U.S. record Monday for the heaviest pumpkin after raising a giant gourd weighing 2,560 pounds. He also won an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California.
Growing the pumpkin was one thing. Driving 2,000 miles to get the Halloween symbol to the 49th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, was something else.
Gienger drove the gargantuan gourd for 35 hours to see his hard work pay off. He also won the same contest in Northern California in 2020 and broke the record set last week in New York where a grower raised a massive pumpkin weighing 2,554 pounds.
By the way, a grower in Italy holds the world record for the heaviest pumpkin. He grew a 2,702-pound squash in 2021, according to Guinness World Records.
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 10:13 AM.
