A Louisiana Couple Just Set Two Guinness World Records With One Massive Grapefruit
Mary Beth and Doug Meyer weren’t trying to break any records, they just wanted to grow fresh grapefruit. However, when their 10-year-old tree grew a grapefruit the size of a basketball and the weight of a newborn, world records were broken.
The Slidell, Louisiana, couple and their massive citrus entered the Guinness Book of World Records after officials from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry took official measurement of the fruit. They determined that the grapefruit weighed 7 pounds, 14.6 ounces and measured 28 3/4 inches around, measurements that were indeed record breaking. In fact, the grapefruit was so big that it not only broke the record as the world’s heaviest grapefruit, but also set the record as the largest in circumference. The Louisiana-grown grapefruit was 13.6 ounces heavier and 1 1/4 inches bigger than the previous record holder, a Brazilian grapefruit who has held the title since 2006. The Meyers and their giant grapefruit now hold two spots in the Guinness Book of World Records: the world's heaviest and largest grapefruit by circumference.
"It's been an adventure for our family to discover this grapefruit and watch it grow and to measure every couple of weeks and thinking that we were going to achieve a possible world record," Doug Meyer said in a video posted on the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s Facebook page. In the video, Meyer and his grandson can be seen cutting the giant citrus off the tree, showing that it just might take an entire family to grow such a gargantuan fruit.
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Last week, Louisiana State Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain presented the couple with a Guinness certificate in Baton Rouge, according to The Advocate. As the couple received their framed certificates and posed for photos with the oversized fruit, the whole family was there to support them and the grandchildren took turns trying to keep hold of the world record setting grapefruit. Now that the grapefruit has officially entered the record books, there’s no word, if they plan to make a pitcher of juice for the family or a grapefruit cheesecake for a crowd.
