| Prize Pumpkin Weighs In At 1,229 Pounds
Grower Earns Fourth Pumpkin World Championship
LOS ANGELES -- By any standard, it's a great pumpkin.
A retired Washington state firefighter has produced the winning pumpkin at the 31st annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay.
The pumpkin was grown by 55-year old Joel Holland of Puyallup, Wash. The gargantuan gourd tipped the scales at 1,229 pounds. That's 49 pounds heavier than last year's winner. Its circumference measured 13 feet, 7 inches.
Holland grows pumpkins in his spare time. He won the contest three years in a row, from 1992 through 1994.
A contest spokesman said 80 pumpkins were in the running for the top prize. Eight weighed in at more than 1,000 pounds.
Holland won $5 for each winning pound of pumpkin -- a total of $6,145. |