An annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California has a new winner: a third-grade teacher in Washington state who raised a giant one weighing 1,910 pounds.
Cindy Tobeck, 42, who lives outside Olympia, Washington, said her pumpkin grew steadily since she planted it in April, spending much of that time in a greenhouse with heated soil. She said the secret to growing giant pumpkins is using the right seed.
Jim Sherwood’s pumpkin is measured during the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off at Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 10, 2016. Cindy Tobeck, of Olympia, Wash., won the contest with a pumpkin that weighed in at 1,910 pounds.
“I am just over the moon elated right now,” she said. “It was just a real steady grower. It wasn’t an explosive grower… it kept growing well into the summer when a lot of pumpkins slow down.”
Hers came from a 2,230-pound pumpkin that won a different contest last year.
Tobeck beat out more than two dozen other pumpkins from Oregon, Washington and California, said Timothy Beeman, a spokesman for the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay. The runner-up weighed 1,723 pounds. Tobeck was shy of the contest record by about 150 pounds.
At $6 a pound, Tobeck will receive nearly $11,500 in prize money
Last year, Oregon farmer Steve Daletas won the 42nd Half Moon Bay pumpkin weigh-off, when his pumpkin came in at 1,969 pounds.
On Sunday, the Giant Pumpkin European Championship was held in Ludwigsburg, Germany, and a pumpkin weighing about 2,623 pounds took home the award for the heaviest. If anyone would have broken that record they would have received a special $30,000 mega prize.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Where did she get her seed?
Most likely through a local Fair or Grange.
Omg..you could sure get a lot of
Pies out of that.
I love pumpkin pie.
Oh my God Charlie Brown, they killed The Great Pumpkin!