This pumpkin weighs 1,161 kilograms and took 11 hours to carve. But no one thought it would survive – let alone break world records, its grower says. “This pumpkin was never supposed to be. I dumped a five-gallon bucket full of dirt on it when it was about a pound,” Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Anoka, Minn., told As It Happens. Nil Köksal. The Maverick pumpkin – named after Tom Cruise’s character in the movie Top Gun – broke the North American record for the largest pumpkin at a weigh-in in Half Moon Bay, California, earlier this month. On Friday, Gienger brought the massive vegetable back home for a carving, hoping to break the Guinness World Record for the largest jack-o’-lantern. In an email to As It Happens on Monday, Guinness World Records confirmed that Gienger and his pumpkin not only broke the world record for the longest lantern, but also the world’s heaviest. “Nobody thought he was going to make it,” Gienger said. “And then it grew into the largest in North America.” Travis Gienger and his colossal pumpkin, which took 11 hours to carve into a lantern. (Submitted by Travis Gienger) He said his pumpkin was growing at an extraordinary rate, about 25 pounds a day. That’s 669 kg in just one month. “It’s fun to watch,” Gienger said. “But it’s also really fun to see the reaction on people’s faces.” Gienger suspects this pumpkin could be the most photographed vegetable of the year. “That pumpkin is going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of five to 10 thousand pictures of it,” he said.
It was supposed to be Tom Cruise
Ginger may have grown the colossal pumpkin, but he had to commission engraver Mike Rudolph to turn it into the lantern of the century. Originally, the pair hoped to carve the pumpkin into Maverick’s Top Gun helmet with mask and goggles. But it turns out that this was a pumpkin that didn’t look like Tom Cruise. “Getting a round helmet on a very irregularly shaped pumpkin with clean lines just wouldn’t work,” Gienger said. Instead, Gienger believed that the symbol of an eagle would better represent their country. The final product is the head and talons of a bald eagle, each holding an American flag. “No one thought he was going to make it,” Grienger said of his record-breaking pumpkin. (Travis Grienger) Rudolph, who makes his own tools, had to climb inside the pumpkin to carve it properly. It took about two hours to scrape the seeds out of it. These seeds will now be sold around the world at auctions and various clubs. Gienger says he thinks whoever gets those seeds could have another world record on their hands. “The seed could grow the next world record,” he said. “No problem.”
title: “North America S Largest Pumpkin Is Now The World S Largest Jack O Lantern " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-04” author: “Larry Rosario”
This pumpkin weighs 1,161 kilograms and took 11 hours to carve. But no one thought it would survive – let alone break world records, its grower says. “This pumpkin was never supposed to be. I dumped a five-gallon bucket full of dirt on it when it was about a pound,” Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Anoka, Minn., told As It Happens. Nil Köksal. The Maverick pumpkin – named after Tom Cruise’s character in the movie Top Gun – broke the North American record for the largest pumpkin at a weigh-in in Half Moon Bay, California, earlier this month. On Friday, Gienger brought the massive vegetable back home for a carving, hoping to break the Guinness World Record for the largest jack-o’-lantern. In an email to As It Happens on Monday, Guinness World Records confirmed that Gienger and his pumpkin not only broke the world record for the longest lantern, but also the world’s heaviest. “Nobody thought he was going to make it,” Gienger said. “And then it grew into the largest in North America.” Travis Gienger and his colossal pumpkin, which took 11 hours to carve into a lantern. (Submitted by Travis Gienger) He said his pumpkin was growing at an extraordinary rate, about 25 pounds a day. That’s 669 kg in just one month. “It’s fun to watch,” Gienger said. “But it’s also really fun to see the reaction on people’s faces.” Gienger suspects this pumpkin could be the most photographed vegetable of the year. “That pumpkin is going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of five to 10 thousand pictures of it,” he said.
It was supposed to be Tom Cruise
Ginger may have grown the colossal pumpkin, but he had to commission engraver Mike Rudolph to turn it into the lantern of the century. Originally, the pair hoped to carve the pumpkin into Maverick’s Top Gun helmet with mask and goggles. But it turns out that this was a pumpkin that didn’t look like Tom Cruise. “Getting a round helmet on a very irregularly shaped pumpkin with clean lines just wouldn’t work,” Gienger said. Instead, Gienger believed that the symbol of an eagle would better represent their country. The final product is the head and talons of a bald eagle, each holding an American flag. “No one thought he was going to make it,” Grienger said of his record-breaking pumpkin. (Travis Grienger) Rudolph, who makes his own tools, had to climb inside the pumpkin to carve it properly. It took about two hours to scrape the seeds out of it. These seeds will now be sold around the world at auctions and various clubs. Gienger says he thinks whoever gets those seeds could have another world record on their hands. “The seed could grow the next world record,” he said. “No problem.”
