By: Jasmine Wang

For normal people, October is the time to eat pumpkin sweets and dress up in spooky costumes for Halloween, but not for pumpkin farmers. Pumpkin farmers are not ordinary people.

At this time of year, pumpkin farmers show off their giant produce at many pumpkin weigh-offs around the nation. Pumpkin weigh-offs are competitions for pumpkin farmers to compare big pumpkins. There is one weigh-off in particular that is very popular, known as the “Super Bowl” of pumpkin weigh-offs, and takes place in Half Moon Bay, California.

After the top prize was changed to $30,000, this competition has become even more popular. In order to claim this prize, contestants would have to submit a pumpkin heavier than the current world record holder, a 2,703-pound gourd with a circumference of 17 feet and 9 inches. If the heaviest pumpkin at the competition weighed less, the owner attempting to break the record would receive $9 per pound.

This year’s winner was a 2,560-pound gourd nicknamed “Maverick”. It was submitted by a person called Travis Gienger from Anoka, Minnesota. Though it didn’t set a world record, it did beat the previous American record holder, a 2554-pound squash, by just six pounds, setting a new American record. Gienger received $23,040 for his giant pumpkin.

Travis Gienger is no stranger to winning pumpkin weigh-offs. In 2020, his 2,350-pound pumpkin nicknamed “Tiger King” also took first place. He then carved this pumpkin and earned the Guinness World Record for the largest jack-o-lantern by circumference. Now, Gienger plans to carve “Maverick” and break his own record.