HALF MOON BAY, Calif.—A 2,560-pound pumpkin named “Maverick” set a new North American record on a foggy Monday at the 2022 Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off contest in Half Moon Bay, Calif. on Oct. 10. The weigh-in reward was $9 per pound, so the winner took home $23,040 for this behemoth.
“At first I expected more, but I’m super thankful that it’s the North American record,” said the owner of the champion pumpkin Travis Gienger from Anoka, Minn. For him, it’s not just 180 days of labor taking care of the pumpkin—he spent 35 hours of driving and $1,100 of gas to transport it for the contest.
“It’s named Maverick because it crashed and burned on Day 5 with all the scars, so it’s a maverick bear.” Gienger said it’s difficult to grow pumpkins in Minnesota because the weather can go from 96°F to 42°F in 24 hours.
“We got lucky with this one,” he said.
Steve Daletas’ pumpkin ranked as the second heaviest at the contest at 2,425 pounds. One nerve-wracking part of the pumpkin-growing hobby is lifting the massive gourds.
“We got a lot of time and energy invested into things, and this is the culmination of it all and you want it to work. You make a mistake, you lose your pumpkin,” said Daletas, a four-time championship winner at the Half Moon Bay contest.
Local grower Heather Orange won a $1,000 prize for the most beautiful pumpkin. She intends to put that money into her son’s college fund.
“I think the biggest challenge is you never know if the mildew or mold, bugs, and critters are going to get to them,” Orange said.
It’s true that not everyone’s backyard can grow this kind of huge pumpkin, according to Randy Warren from Auburn, Calif. “It’s a genetic thing; it’s a giant Atlantic breed.”
25 years ago, Warren recalled that he obtained a pumpkin seed from a newspaper editor. “It’s like catching a fish; I got hooked. So I’ve being doing it every year since.”
Starting in 1974 with a champion pumpkin of 132 pounds, the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off now has a record of 2,560 pounds. It’s only 143 pounds short of the world pumpkin heavyweight record of 2,703 pounds set by Stefano Cutrupi of Italy in 2021.
The contest kicks off the Golden Anniversary of the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival to be held Oct. 15–16.
