Stellar Snippets
A Minnesota farmer set a new world record in 2023 at the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon on Oct. 11th.
The 50th annual competition which sees participants from around the country each year was more special because of the record.
Travis Gienger also won three of the last competitions and set a new North American record with his 2,560-pound pumpkin in 2022.
This year, he drove his ginormous 7.5-foot-wide gourd (nicknamed Michael Jordan) weighing 2,749 pounds from his farm in Anoka.
The pumpkin was placed on a 5-ton capacity, industrial-strength digital scale using forklifts and special harnesses.
Landscape and horticulture teacher, Geinger has been a pumpkin farmer for close to 30 years and won a $30,000 prize for the world record this year.
Gienger tended to his backyard pumpkin patch with extra care this year, watering the plants up to 12 times a day and increasing fertilization.
Visitors to the Art and Pumpkin Festival can take photos with Gienger and his gigantic pumpkin, along with the three runners-up, through next weekend.