Gourd guy

Briton Peter Glazebrook should be the undisputed heavyweight champion in vegetable gardening.

The Nottinghamshire, England resident holds the Guinness World Record titles for the heaviest potato at 4.98 kilograms, the heaviest cauliflower at 27.48 kg, and the heaviest aubergine at 3.362 kg.

The 79-year-old has been participating in a local contest for giant vegetables, the Canna UK National Giant Vegetables Championship, at the Malvern Autumn Show. He holds more than 17 records in the contest, The Independent reported.

In the 23 to 25 September contest, Glazebrook won in five categories. He produced the longest cucumber at 1.069 meters, the heaviest aubergine at 2.77 kg, the heaviest onion at 7.3 kg, the heaviest cantaloupe melon at 11.43 kg, the three heaviest onions at 20.4 kg, and the heaviest pepper at 0.75 kg.

Glazebrook has many clones. Some vegetable growers beat him in other categories of the competition. Outside the United Kingdom, there are even more giant vegetable growers, and Travis Gienger is among them.

Gienger won at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival in California last 9 October to take home the $30,000 grand prize.

In its 50th year, the contest pits growers of mega-gourds from all over North America against each other to see who can produce the biggest berry.

In the recent contest, Gienger, from Minnesota, pipped his nearest rival by a hefty 113.4 kg to walk away with this year's title.

Contest organizers said he also notched a new world record in the process, besting an Italian effort from 2021 that tipped the scales at a relatively svelte 1,226 kg.

Gienger's enormous pumpkin weighed in at an improbable 1,247 kg. That is the same weight as a hippopotamus.

WITH AFP