Prize pumpkin weighs in at 1,229 pounds
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-11 09:10

A retired Washington firefighter won the annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off on Monday, presenting a gigantic pumpkin that weighed 1,229 pounds.

Maddison Harder, 3, climbs on Joel Holland's prize-winning-record, 1,229-pound Atlantic Giant pumpkin at the annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Monday, Oct. 10, 2005. [AP]

Joel Holland said the pumpkin could make roughly 600 pumpkin pies but instead will be displayed in a parade in Half Moon Bay this coming weekend, then carved into a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween.

"Maybe we'll set a record for the size of a pumpkin pie next," said Holland, who has won the competition five years in a row. He won last year with a pumpkin that weighed exactly the same amount.

Holland's pumpkin had to be removed from the back of a pickup truck with a crane.

Holland, 56, said he worried when the contest began because another pumpkin was bigger dimensionally than his entry.

He attributed his success to two decades of pumpkin growing experience and the favorable climate at his Puyallup, Wash., home. The Atlantic Giant was hand-pollinated and grew from July to October.

Contenders beware: Holland plans to use the seeds from this year's giant to spawn another behemoth.