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

(Image credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

published 10 October 2017

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."

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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.

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