Minnesota Teacher’s 2,471-Pound Gourd Triumphs in Annual Pumpkin-Weighing Competition

A 2,471-pound gourd from Minnesota has triumphed at the annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off. 

Its grower, Travis Gienger, faced the moment of truth on October 14, as his orange behemoth was hoisted onto the scale. Gienger’s pumpkin, also known as “Rudy,” was among the last to be weighed.

“We’re just hoping for a top-ten finish right now,” he told the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Tim Harlow at the event, held in Half Moon Bay, California. “There is a lot of pressure.”

Though one other gourd had come close—Californian Brandon Dawson’s 2,465-pound pumpkin—Gienger’s cinched the lead. He’s now won the contest three years in a row—and four times total. Last year, Gienger’s entry also set a world record for heaviest pumpkin, weighing in at 2,749 pounds.

The first Half Moon Bay pumpkin weigh-off was held 50 years ago, in 1974. Per a statement, Half Moon Bay officials had challenged faraway Circleville, Ohio, to the pumpkin weigh-off after both cities declared themselves the pumpkin capital of the world. The winner of the first contest was John Minaidis of Half Moon Bay, whose pumpkin was a measly 132 pounds.

Hailing from Anoka, Minnesota, 44-year-old Gienger is a horticulture teacher at Anoka Technical College. Along with the world record for heaviest pumpkin, Gienger also shares the world record for the largest jack-o’-lantern by circumference. (His creation, carved to resemble an eagle, had a 242-inch circumference.) He’s been growing pumpkins for nearly 30 years.

“My dad was growing little pumpkins—say, 100-pounders—and [I] just kind of picked up gardening in general and decided, hey, this is something I want to try,” Gienger tells Minnesota Public Radio’s Cathy Wurzer and Ellen Finn. “So when I was 14, I grew a 447-pounder, and that was pretty big for the time, and [I’ve] been doing it ever since.”

Gienger’s pumpkin growing hobby has proven profitable. Last year, he won $30,000 in Half Moon Bay for the world record smash, and he won $22,239 this year—$9 per pound of Rudy. As Gienger tells the Tribune, the prize money will cover the “couple thousand” dollars he spent on gas to transport his pumpkin from Minnesota to California.

Gienger planted Rudy—nicknamed for the football player who inspired an eponymous movie—in April of this year, and the pumpkin had a slow summer.

“I didn’t think I’d have anything, come June,” Gienger tells Coastside News’ Sebastian Miño-Bucheli. “If you had talked to me in June I would have been like, ‘No, our weather is way too wet, way too cold.’”

But the pumpkin pulled through, bulking up just enough before Gienger packed it up and started out toward California. Half Moon Bay isn’t its final destination, though. As Gienger tells the Tribune, Rudy is headed to Los Angeles, where professional carvers will transform it into a jack-o’-lantern.

Sonja Anderson | READ MORE

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.