WOW! Elk Grove "Super-Pumpkin" Breaks State Record

ELK GROVE, CA - Elk Grove is keeping up its reputation as home to California's biggest pumpkins -- even if they are coming from north of the border.

A massive pumpkin weighing in at 1,536.5 pounds broke the California state record for largest pumpkin at the Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin and Harvest Festival Saturday at the Elk Grove Regional Park.

The super-squash, grown by Jake van Kooten of Port Alberni, Vancouver Island in Canada, almost literally crushed a field of worthy competition, including more than a half-dozen pumpkins that weighed in at over 1,000 pounds, festival organizer Zach Jones said.

The formidable fruit, which had to be transported off its Canadian island home by ferry, broke the California record of 1,535.5 pounds set at last year's festival. For his efforts, van Kooten picked up a check for $9,219, $6 for every pound of the pumpkin powerhouse.

Jones said genetics and new seed treatment processes have helped the competitive pumpkin-growing game grow by leaps and bounds since the first Harvest Festival 14 years ago.

"The largest one (in 1994) was 389 pounds," Jones said.

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