Pumpkin weighing 2,058 pounds sets North American record

Pumpkin weighing 2,058 pounds sets North American record
(Image credit: Twitter.com/TWilsonTV)

That's going to make a lot of pie: A 2,058-pound pumpkin grown in California has set the North American record for biggest gourd.

John Hawkley of Napa, California, entered the monstrosity in the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. While there were some other enormous entries — including a 1,828 pound pumpkin that had a soft spot and was disqualified — Hawkley was the big winner, taking home more than $13,000 in prize money ($1,000 for having the biggest pumpkin and an additional $6 per pound), plus bragging rights.

The pumpkin didn't break the world record of 2,323 pounds, set Sunday by Beni Meier of Switzerland, but organizers say Hawkley's pumpkin is the first in the event's history to clock in at more than 2,000 pounds. His secret for growing such a ginormous gourd? He "loves all his pumpkins equally, [and] checks on them every day."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.