{"id":782130,"date":"2026-09-25T12:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782130\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T12:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:02:11","slug":"giant-aubergine-grower-maggie-never-expected-to-win-at-national-live-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782130\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant aubergine grower Maggie ‘never expected to win’ at national – live updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dad’s idea at the pub turned from ‘tiny seed’ to ‘huge spectacle’published at 12:51 BST<\/p>\n

12:51 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Alistair Binney
Reporting from the championship<\/p>\n

I’ve been speaking to Kevin Fortey, whose family first started the tradition of the giant vegetable competition.<\/p>\n

“It started off in the 80s with a tiny seed and it’s mothballed now into this huge spectacle,” he says. He tells me his dad started the championship at the pub after a challenge to see who could grow the biggest pumpkin.<\/p>\n

“And within two years, the pumpkins had got that big and people were coming from all over the UK”, Fortey says.<\/p>\n

However, he does not feel a family pressure to continue the legacy of growing giant vegetables, and instead sees it as a delight.<\/p>\n

But he acknowledges that it is stressful when having to battle the elements.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had exceptionally warm weather this year in Wales,” he says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The hotter weather did mean that he could grow different types of vegetables this year – including a tropical plant: the luffa, which weighed just over five kilos, or 11 lbs. He says it is the equivalent size to an adult house cat.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m really proud of what I\u2019ve achieved over my growing
\ncareer, I\u2019m only 48 and hopefully I\u2019ve got a long time ahead,” he says.<\/p>\n

“My dad would be
\nexceptionally proud of what I\u2019ve achieved”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dad’s idea at the pub turned from ‘tiny seed’ to ‘huge spectacle’published at 12:51 BST 12:51 BST Alistair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}