Well, would you look at that. A pumpkin grower from Belgium, Mattias Willemyens, "splattered" the Guinness World Record for the world's largest pumpkin at the Giant Pumpkin European Championship, held this past Sunday in the German city of Ludwigsburg. There it is—the queen, spacious enough to ensconce Cinderella. Incredible. Notice the pumpkin's puny competitors, lumpen and misshapen, perched atop mobile blocks of wood and hauled by burly tractors.
Willemyens' little morsel of fruit has ballooned for the past 93 days, clocking in at a whopping 1,190.5 kilograms—that's 2,600 pounds. In doing so, it's bested the measly 1,054 kilogram record held by Swiss strongarm Beni Meier, whose pumpkin was "authenticated by the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth" (uh) two years ago to the day. Ha. Move over, bud. There's a new pumpkin in this Commonwealth.
"I feel great. I didn't expect it—that heavy," Willemyens, who even has his own Facebook page dedicated to his "GIANT pumpkins" commented. "That's awesome."
Wow. Have you ever seen a pumpkin this large? Please let me know.
Mayukh Sen is a James Beard Award-winning food and culture writer in New York. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Bon Appetit, and elsewhere. He won a 2018 James Beard Award in Journalism for his profile of Princess Pamela published on Food52.
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