California pumpkin contest sets world record for largest gourd

A Minnesota horticulture teacher set a world record this week for growing the heaviest pumpkin on record.

Travis Gienger from Anoka, Minnesota, won the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California, for an enormous gourd weighing in at 2,749 pounds, The Associated Press reported.

“This pumpkin is called Michael Jordan to his name because it’s the year 23 … and he’s the greatest basketball player of all time,” Gienger told KSTP-TV. “What people don’t know is it started out basketball round and I said this is going to be a perfectly round basketball-shaped pumpkin.”

Gienger has been growing pumpkins for almost 30 years and led up to the world record-breaking pumpkin by growing a giant pumpkin that set the record in the U.S. last year, per AP.

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What was the prize for the California pumpkin contest?

He spent nearly $15,000 to care for and feed the giant pumpkin that is “equivalent to about 2,110 basketballs,” The Guardian reported.

For his prize, Gienger will receive $9 per pound ($24,741 total) for winning the competition, as well as a $30,000 bonus for smashing the world record, according to NBC Bay Area.

“I put in the work so that I can put a smile on people’s faces and it’s just so nice coming out here to see everyone in this town,” he told AP.

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