Minnesota Horticulture Teacher Sets New Heaviest Pumpkin Record

(Half Moon Bay, CA)  —  A horticulture teacher from Minnesota is the new U.S. record holder for heaviest pumpkin.  Travis Gienger of Anoka drove the gourd 35 hours to yesterday’s 49th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California, south of San Francisco.  He took over the U.S. record with a gargantuan pumpkin weighing 25-hundred-60 pounds.  Gienger said it was “like winning the Tour de France on a big wheel” in that it’s very difficult in Minnesota to raise such a large gourd.  An Italian grower holds the world record, with a squash weighing 27-hundred-two pounds in 2021.