If you have ever fussed over a backyard tomato plant, or carried a blue ribbon home from the county fair, you already understand a little of what drives Woody Lancaster.
He just took it further. Exactly 2,598 pounds further.
On Friday night, October 2, Lancaster brought his giant pumpkin to the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts for the 42nd All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off. It tipped the scales at 2,598 pounds and set a new fair record. NBC10 Boston described it as roughly the size of a compact car.
Lancaster has been growing for most of 30 years. He is 80, and he said this weigh-off would be his last.
“It feels great,” he told The Boston Globe.
How Big Is 2,598 Pounds?
Big enough to beat the old fair record by 91 pounds. That mark was set last year by Alex Noel of Abington, Connecticut, whose pumpkin weighed 2,507 pounds. Organizers told NBC10 Boston that Lancaster’s pumpkin is also the biggest ever grown in Massachusetts.
Twenty-one pumpkins were entered this year. Lancaster won more than $10,000 in prize money.
When the winner was announced, family, friends, and fellow growers crowded around him. As they lifted him onto their shoulders for pictures, he had one request.
“Hurry up, my son’s back is giving out,” Lancaster joked.
The contest was judged by Cindy Tobeck, president of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, the global governing body for these competitions. Back home in Olympia, Washington, she teaches fifth grade. She checks each entry for soft spots, holes, chemical residue, and rot. Any one of them can knock a grower out.
“There’s a real dedicated group of growers here in the Northeast,” Tobeck said.
What Does It Take to Grow One?
Time, for starters. Lancaster told the Globe the hobby can take up to four hours of his day.
He did not coast through his final season, either. He changed his fertilizer mix. His winning pumpkin was pollinated in July and, by his account, gained about 58 pounds a day.
Dave Thomson, a spokesperson for the fair, said that the work is very scientific. It runs from the seeds growers choose to the fertilizer, sun, and water each pumpkin gets. Before the weigh-off, he said organizers had heard a dry growing season might help the top contenders break the fair record.
Lancaster puts it more simply.
“I can take a seed the size of your thumbnail and turn it into a 2,500 pound pumpkin,” he said.
Who Grows Next?
Lancaster is a longtime cochair of the weigh-off and a New England representative to the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth. He told the Globe he feels good about the future of the sport, because young people keep joining even as many longtime growers age out.
One of them grows on his land. Henry Swenson, 24, started growing pumpkins soon after seeing the giants at Topsfield when he was 13. Lancaster has mentored him, and Swenson has now competed at the fair eight times.
This summer was a tough one for him. His pumpkin battled disease and weighed 1,246 pounds. He already holds a Guinness World Record, set in 2021, for a 65.5-pound butternut squash.
“I’m just happy to be here,” Swenson said.
Fifth place went to an 11-year-old from Fitchburg, who also won $500 as junior grower of the year.
Lancaster’s pumpkin and the four runners-up will stay on display until the fair closes on October 12. The winner even gets its own air-conditioned spot.
Every giant in that display started as a seed the size of a thumbnail. Henry Swenson was 13 when the giants at Topsfield got him started. If a grandchild stops to stare at the big pumpkins this fall, a packet of seeds may be the souvenir worth bringing home.
