One-Ton Pumpkin

**C* E* <C*@CatrionaTudorErler.com>**

A friend sent me the following bit of information, and I thought I share it with all of you.  
Happy Halloween!
Catriona

> HAPPY HALLOWEEN
> One-Ton Pumpkin
> The largest pumpkin ever recorded weighed in at an astonishing 2,032 pounds. For context, that’s equal to one ton, a VW Beetle, or a fully-grown polar bear. The record was set in 2013, and there’s a good chance the record will be broken again this year, thanks to a robust community of competitive pumpkin farmers. Over a century of aggressive selective breeding has made growing such monstrous squash a possibility. In 1904, the world record was only 400 pounds. Scientists have theorized that a geometrically perfect specimen could eventually reach 20,000 pounds. The monster variety is called the Atlantic Giant Pumpkin, and the first time the seeds sprouted in North America they were in the garden of Henry David Thoreau back in 1857—and his largest only reached 123 pounds. During the peak growing season, the modern descendants from Thoreau’s pumpkin patch can pack on 50 pounds of girth in a single day. The simple fact that we can coax a vegetable to such size is scary. Happy H!
 alloween.

Catriona Tudor Erler
965 Pintail Lane
Charlottesville, VA 22903
434 953-6780
Catriona@CatrionaTudorErler.com
www.CatrionaTudorErler.com

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