Largest Pumpkin Bursts Onto the Scene

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, at the yearly pumpkin weigh-in at Half Moon Bay, a 1,658-pound pumpkin won. The behemoth clinched the coveted title of largest recorded pumpkin at Half Moon Bay, which sits in the center of a lush coastal agricultural region south of San Francisco. The proud papa was farmer Don Young of Des Moines, Iowa, who drove it 2,000 miles on a flatbed truck in order to enter the contest. The specimen is 5 feet 4 inches in length, and will be featured in a pumpkin festival that will be held in Half Moon Bay this weekend.

That pumpkin fell short of the designation World’s Largest. That distinction belongs to a pumpkin presented in an Ohio Valley competition on October 3, 2009, which weighed 1,725. Read about it here.

Check out our other Fork in the Road seasonal pumpkin coverage:

Freak show pumpkin at Union Square

Pumpkin vivesection

Bring me the head of Guy Fieri