Rhode Island man keeps growing record-setting giant fruits and vegetables


This weekend, Joe Jutras finally broke the record he's been eyeing for 10 years: His green squash weighed in at 2,118 pounds, making it the world's largest.
Jutras has been wanting to smash this record since 2007, when he made headlines for growing the world's biggest pumpkin (1,689 pounds). That record has since been broken (so has his 2006 record for longest gourd, at 126.5 inches), but the Rhode Island man is the first person to win world records in three of the most competitive growing categories. "It feels great," he told The Associated Press. "It's really been a goal of mine to try to achieve this."
Jutras is a retired cabinet maker, and now that he has more free time, he plans on spending it in his garden. He credits this year's win to a new soil cultivation technique and a seed from last year's record breaker, and is already looking at the bushel gourd to hopefully get him a fourth title. "I think the record now is about 279 pounds," Jutras said. "That might be something I might want to get into a bit."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
Millet: Life on the Land – an 'absorbing' exhibition
The Week Recommends Free exhibition at the National Gallery showcases the French artist's moving paintings of rural life
-
Scientists are speeding up evolution
Under the radar Proteins can evolve in minutes
-
Crossword: August 29, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wife
speed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play