This Massive Pumpkin Broke Records Last Week—It Weighs More Than A Small Car

Charlie Brown was right: There really is a great pumpkin! A Connecticut man just won the All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off with a record-breaking gourd—it weighs more than a small car. Last week Alex Noel of Pomfret, CT won the All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off with a whopping 2,294.5-pound entry. Which, for the record, is about 25 pounds heavier than a Chevrolet Spark.

The competition was held last Friday at the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, MA, where 29 pumpkins and gourds were forklifted onto the scale to be weighed.

And while it's not the heaviest pumpkin in American history—that title belongs to Steve Geddes of Boscawen, NH, who grew a 2,528-pound pumpkin in 2018—Noel's gourd did exceed the New England competition's previous record by more than 180 pounds. Last year's heaviest pumpkin weighed in at 2,114 pounds. It's also the largest pumpkin we've seen reported so far in 2019.

Courtesy of Ryan McBride / The Eagle-Tribune

Noel has been growing pumpkins for 18 years, but this is his first record-breaker. He told The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, MA that winning the all-New England competition was especially meaningful to him because he's been attending the Topsfield Fair since he was a kid. "This is the place that inspired me to try doing this," he said.

If he keeps up his pumpkin-growing methods, Noel could be well on his way to breaking the Guinness World Record for the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded—a record currently held by the Belgian man Mathias Willemijns, who grew a 2,624.6-pounder in 2016.

If you have plans to be in Massachusetts this week, the winning pumpkin will be on display all week. If you want to get your photo taken next to the gigantic gourd, you have until October 14 to head to the fair.