Greene Resident Grows World's Largest Pumpkin

Ron Wallace of Greene made history on Friday when he became the first person to grow a 1-ton pumpkin, shattering the world record for largest fruit ever grown at the Topsfield Fair Giant Pumpkin Contest.

The pumpkin, named "The Freak II" weighed in at 2,009 pounds, earning Wallace a $10,000 bonus prize for being the first person to break the 1-ton mark in addition to the $5,500 prize for winning the competition.

According to the Boston Globe, Wallace, who was the first to break 1,500 pounds in 2006 at the same fair, was ecstatic after the digital scale showed the final weight, repeatedly yelling “Ron Wallace is back! Ron Wallace is back! It took six years, but I’m back!” 

The record-breaking gourd topped the previous record coming out of Wisconsin in 2010, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as weighing in at 1,810.5 pounds at the Stillwater Harvest Festival in Minnesota. Wallace's pumpkin also defeated a short-lived (one day) record made by a 1,843 pound gourd at the Deerfield Fair in New Hampshire on Thursday.

Wallace will be entering his other giant pumpkin, “The Pleasure Dome.” into a weigh-off at Frerichs Farm in Warren on Saturday, Oct. 6. The weigh-off begins at noon.