It’s pumpkin season! And the 51st World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay near San Francisco has a new winner for 2024. This year, the winning pumpkin came all the way from Anoka, Minnesota, to be declared the biggest pumpkin. The owner of the winner is a horticulture teacher who has won four years in a row. Travis Gienger, the winner, said he beat the second place winner by six pounds.
Gienger’s pumpkin weighed 2,471 pounds, falling a little short of the world record that he set in 2023.
Apparently, Gienger knows how to grown them big. He was concerned with the cold temperatures that Minnesota had recently experienced, but his pumpkin seemed to be just fine. One of the challenging parts of the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off is transporting the pumpkin to northern California. For Gienger, it took his family 35 hours to get there.
The winning pumpkin will be taken to Southern California where a group of professional carvers will conduct a 3D design on it for a Halloween event.