Electrical vehicle engineer Brandon Dawson won the top prize at the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California. His prized pumpkin weighed 2,346 pounds, which is about the weight of a bison or a small sedan.
Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off
Jack La Rue, a former competitive grower who’s now a historian and statistician for the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, the international ruling body for weigh-off contests, said the pursuit of record-setting pumpkins dates back to at least the late 1800s. The Half Moon Bay weigh-off began in 1974.
“Right now, Half Moon Bay stands on top of the world for the heaviest 10 pumpkins (on average) ever weighed at one site,’’ La Rue said.
Likened to the Super Bowl of pumpkin growing, the annual pumpkin weighing contest has seen many record-breaking gourds. For example, horticulture teacher Travis Gienger, a four-time winner at the weigh-off, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records at the event with his 2,749-pound pumpkin in 2023.
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This year’s winner, Dawson, started growing large pumpkins as a hobby around five years ago. Though he works full-time as a manufacturing engineer at Rivian Automotive in Sonoma County, California, Dawson is a longtime gardener. According to Dawson, his engineering background has informed his pumpkin-growing technique.
“Sometimes it [growing pumpkins] gets pretty technical with a lot of the details around how you water and how you fertilize,” Dawson told the Associated Press.
Dawson also discussed how he enjoys getting his two young children involved in the pumpkin-growing process.
“We like to spend time out in the patch and watch the thing grow,” said Dawson, referring to his 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. “My 4-year-old now can really pay attention to the growing process,” especially as the pumpkin starts packing on 50 to 70 pounds a day.
Dawson placed second at the weigh-off in 2024, losing by only six pounds to another grower, Travis Gienger, who was also the reigning champion for three years in a row. Dawson won $21,114 for his victory this year, or $9 a pound for his pumpkin. If he had broken the world record, he would have received an additional $30,000 bonus.
