Giant pumpkin growers and their massive gourds will converge on Monday in Northern California for an annual pumpkin-weighing contest, competing for the top prize and a chance to challenge the world record set just last week in England.<\/p>\n
At least 30 growers of giant pumpkins have signed up for the 53rd World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, said event spokesman Ronan Fowler.<\/p>\n
Among the participants is four-time champion Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Minnesota, whose winning streak ended last year after he was unable to participate because his pumpkin broke while it was still growing.<\/p>\n
Gienger, who this year had to deal with temperatures that dipped below freezing, grew a pumpkin whose circumference is so big it could be a world record contender, Fowler said. <\/p>\n
Fowler said last week that Gienger and his father planned to take turns driving 30 hours over the weekend to get the pumpkin the size of a small car to California. <\/p>\n
The new world record was set by Ian Paton, of Lymington, on England’s south coast, with a giant squash weighing 2,857 pounds (1,296 kilograms). That’s heavier than two and a half concert grand pianos.<\/p>\n
Paton grows his giant gourds in a greenhouse, while Gienger grows them in the pumpkin patch in his backyard in Anoka, a city on the banks of the Mississippi River north of Minneapolis, Fowler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that Travis can weather the elements, like 30-degree weather, and still grow this massive pumpkin is pretty unbelievable,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Brandon Dawson, of Santa Rosa, California, who won the top prize last year with a behemoth of a pumpkin weighing 2,346 pounds (1,064 kilograms), will also compete.<\/p>\n
The pumpkin champ this year will win $9 per pound of pumpkin and have their lumpy gourd showcased during a parade through Half Moon Bay this weekend. If they break the world record, they will take an extra prize of $30,000. <\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s festivities, which will kick off the city’s fall celebration, will also include a special appearance by pumpkin carver Mike Valladao. <\/p>\n
Sadly, these giants are grown for their size, not flavor, so there will be no giant pumpkin pies at the end of the festival.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giant pumpkin growers and their massive gourds will converge on Monday in Northern California for an annual pumpkin-weighing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,3313],"class_list":["post-493771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-half-moon-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}