New Jersey Lawyer Grows 2nd Largest Pumpkin In State's History
LONG VALLEY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Pumpkin picking season is in its prime, and nowhere is this more evident than at Ort Farms in Long Valley, New Jersey.
As CBS 2's Vanessa Murdock reported, with so many orange beauties to choose from, picking that perfect one from the patch can be challenging.
But for 5-year-old Harrison Dechellis, an unusual white one caught his attention.
"(Murdock: What's the coolest pumpkin you've seen so far? The biggest one," Harrison said.
By some standards you could call it enormous, and it's drawing a crowd. That's because it's the second largest pumpkin in New Jersey history.
"Its the first thing they look for or they'll ask where's the pumpkin?" Ort Farms manager Nicole Moke said.
This is a big deal even for someone like Moke, who deals with pumpkins daily.
"When I saw it next to full-grown men, I was like in awe of how big it really is," she said.
The state's second largest pumpkin ever weighs in at 863 pounds and is nearly 14.5 feet in diameter.
Michel Starr is the green thumb behind the giant gourd, but he's no farmer. He's a lawyer who tended to his prize-winning pumpkin daily, Murdock reported.
"I only pumpkin on the weekends and in the summer," he said.
Starr said he put in 10 hours a week watering and fertilizing it to pack on the pounds. In the month of August, the pumpkin sometimes grew more than 30 pounds a day.
Starr's secret to success though: the right seed.
"I actually know the 'parents' that it came from. They were big white pumpkins too," Starr said. "(Did you personally pick out the seeds?) I did. There's seed auctions in the wintertime where you can buy pumpkins from past years. So just like there's pedigrees for dogs, there's pedigrees for pumpkins."
And it must have been a very good pedigree, he paid about $70 for just one seed, Murdock reported. The payoff though -- adults ogling and little ones smiling -- is priceless.
The largest pumpkin ever grown in the United States weighed in at 2,032 pounds, setting a new record just last year.
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