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Notably Large / Largest Fruits & Vegetables (Guinness Records, Etc.)

IbisNibs said:
Actually, that's far larger than any potato that has ever been since time began. ...
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Since you brought up the subject of potatoes ...

As of 2010, Peter Glazebrook of Hallam, Nottinghamshire, was recognized as having grown the largest known potato. It weighed 3.5 kg (7 lbs., 13 oz.). This 2010 achievement is still widely cited on the 'Net as the largest known potato.
Giant potato confirmed as a world record breaker

An amateur gardener has grown the heaviest potato in the world.

Peter Glazebrook grew the 8lb 4oz (3.8kg) spud in his back garden in Hallam, near Newark in Nottinghamshire.

The prize potato was officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records in September 2010, beating the previous record of 7lb 13oz (3.5kg).

Mr Glazebrook has been growing large spuds for about 10 years. He said of his root vegetable: "I was really pleased to achieve that."

The gardener does not just grow huge potatoes but all sorts of big vegetables in his back garden.

He has held ten world records over the last 20 years and currently holds three, the other two being the heaviest parsnip and the longest beetroot. ...
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FULL STORY: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8981000/8981742.stm

See Also:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ne...eur-gardener-grows-worlds-biggest-potato.html
 
However ... The Guinness site indicates Mr. Glazebrook outdid himself in the record spud category the following year.

Who
PETER GLAZEBROOK
Where
UNITED KINGDOM (SHEPTON MALLET)
When
04 SEPTEMBER 2011

The heaviest potato weighs 4.98 kg (10 lb 14 oz) and was grown by Peter Glazebrook (UK). It was weighed at the National Gardening Show at the Royal Bath & West Showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, UK, on 4 September 2011.
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SOURCE: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.co...b_comment_id=871368709604863_1051593841582348
 
While we're on the subject of massive vegetables in general and potatoes specifically ...

The image below is an example of 19th century "photoshopping" sufficiently believable to be printed (albeit later retracted ... ) in both Scientific American and The Strand Magazine. It may represent the seminal photo manipulation that inspired an endless series of such "tall tale" images on postcards (etc.) for decades thereafter.

I give you the celebrated "Maggie Murphy Potato" ...

JosephSwan-Potato-Hoax.jpg

The ‘Maggie Murphy potato’ weighing a purported 86lb 10oz. This picture of Joseph Swan’s potato was taken by Adam Talbot and published, among other places, by The Strand Magazine in 1897.
​
The Maggie Murphy Potato:
... involved an international hoax that still resonates today, and which involves an early (albeit far from the first) tale of ‘Photoshopping’ a picture.

There are three main protagonists in our story; a potato grower named Joseph Swan, the editor of the Loveland Reporter, one W L Thorndyke, and Adam Talbot, a photographer.

Swan was very proud of his spuds, claiming to have grown 26,000 pounds of the tuberous crop in one year on a single acre of land on his farm just outside the Colorado town of Loveland. The Loveland street fair was on the horizon and Thorndyke suggested that the farmer should indulge in a spot of advertising to boost the sale of his crops. His idea was to create a photograph featuring Swan proudly bearing a massive potato. The resulting image could be used as a flyer to promote Swan’s wares.

Thorndyke enlisted the services of Talbot who, considering he had neither a computer nor any clever software, showed considerable ingenuity in creating the required photo. He took a picture of a spud, blew it up as large as the limits of the then technology allowed him, stuck the image on to a board which he had cut out and then got the smiling Swan to pose with the giant potato on his shoulder. ...

Talbot’s photograph isn’t the first example of a doctored image – artists and photography pioneers had been making cameras lie for decades – but it was certainly the first to gain international traction and helped inspire all sorts of imitators. With the cost of photography tumbling there was a fashion amongst photographers to create images, reproduced as postcards of impossibly large farm and dairy products. They proved immensely popular. Whether Talbot was tapping into this trend or was the forerunner is unclear. It was a remarkable feat, however you look at it. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.countrylife.co.uk/garde...us-questions-biggest-potato-ever-grown-184196
 
Jackfruit is yummy :) It's sold by the section (a bit like watermelon) by south Asian groceries. Best to get it a bit under-ripe than over. The texture and taste is indeed a kind of a cross between banana and pineapple. I'm not a fan of the roasted seeds, but Mr Joolz is.

Free photo Fresh Jackfruit Vegetable Fruit Market Sweet - Max Pixel


Jackfruit Seeds, Tropical Fruit | Pikrepo

 
I don't think I've ever seen jackfruit on sale over in the UK.
I'm wondering if transporting it can be problematic.
It can be bought in tins over here, but I have never seen the fresh fruit for sale.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I don't think I've ever seen jackfruit on sale over in the UK.
I'm wondering if transporting it can be problematic.
It can be bought in tins over here, but I have never seen the fresh fruit for sale.
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I've seen it as a veggie option in burrito places and the like.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I don't think I've ever seen jackfruit on sale over in the UK.
I'm wondering if transporting it can be problematic.
It can be bought in tins over here, but I have never seen the fresh fruit for sale.
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When things are a bit safer, have a nose around a larger Asian or ethnic greengrocers or similar, you should see it there :)
 
AnonyJoolz said:
Jackfruit is yummy :) It's sold by the section (a bit like watermelon) by south Asian groceries. Best to get it a bit under-ripe than over. The texture and taste is indeed a kind of a cross between banana and pineapple. I'm not a fan of the roasted seeds, but Mr Joolz is.

Free photo Fresh Jackfruit Vegetable Fruit Market Sweet - Max Pixel


Jackfruit Seeds, Tropical Fruit | Pikrepo
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I've seen them round my way but never known wtf they are. There's all sorts of weird looking stuff available which I've not tried. I'm going to buy one next time I see on your recommendation. How do you know when they're good to buy - should they be hard or soft? I have no sense of smell so that's out..

Mangoes a plenty round here but it's a waste of time buying when not a bit soft - hard ones never ripen & are pretty much inedible. You end up binning them.
 
hunck said:
I've seen them round my way but never known wtf they are. There's all sorts of weird looking stuff available which I've not tried. I'm going to buy one next time I see on your recommendation. How do you know when they're good to buy - should they be hard or soft? I have no sense of smell so that's out..

Mangoes a plenty round here but it's a waste of time buying when not a bit soft - hard ones never ripen & are pretty much inedible. You end up binning them.
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I have just consulted with the fruit expert in our house. He says:

1. Ripe jackfruits are more yellowy than lime green. If you buy a green one, you can leave it to get a bit riper, like you do with bananas.
2. Ripe jackfruits will slightly give when gently prodded.

I hope this helps! :)

Edited to add: I forgot to say that jackfruit has a sticky sap/juice in the central part, people rub their hands with vegetable oil before opening them, to make it easy to wash it off afterwards. Every time I see it done, I am fascinated by the cool 'weird' looking inner surface of the peel. This vid shows a fancy-pants way of peeling it:

 
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AnonyJoolz said:
I have just consulted with the fruit expert in our house. He says:

1. Ripe jackfruits are more yellowy than lime green. If you buy a green one, you can leave it to get a bit riper, like you do with bananas.
2. Ripe jackfruits will slightly give when gently prodded.

I hope this helps! :)
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Thanks. I've only seen green ones, not yellowy, which isn't encouraging.. Hard mangoes never ripen satisfactorily.

Plenty of plantain round here, & in my experience the slightly manky looking brown ones are better even though they look a bit shite.
 
Now I'm feeling hungry... not long till dinnertime...
 
Jackfruit is good stuff, fresh or dried. It's sometimes touted as a meat substitute (don't know about that), but you can often buy it here particularly in larger fruit markets or Asian specific ones. My local supermarkets have it dried, right next to the apricots, prunes, peaches, pears & sultanas.
 
BTW (off topic) welcome back @tuco you had us worried for a bit! :)
 
It's now the season for the annual giant pumpkin stories ...
Giant gourds break Utah state record at weigh-off in Lehi

The Utah Giant Pumpkin Growers has recorded eight pumpkins in Utah this year weighing over 1,000 pounds (455 kilograms), setting a state record.

The first-place pumpkin at the 16th Annual UGPG Thanksgiving Point Weigh-Off on Saturday weighed an incredible 1,825 pounds (830 kilograms), KSTU-TV reported.

The hefty gourd was grown by local farmer Mohamed Sadiq. It was the largest pumpkin to be grown outside of a greenhouse, and the second largest pumpkin ever grown in the state, event organizers said. ...

The event was an official weigh-off site for the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, an organization that has made giant pumpkin growing a cultivated hobby with standards that ensure fruit quality, competition fairness and education. ...
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SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/utah-archive-ef822e3ec2a2916f6bfcac5c7756b934
 
There's also an organization dedicated to the growing of giant pumpkins and providing record information about other crops as well ...
The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth's (GPC) mission cultivates the hobby of growing giant pumpkins throughout the world by establishing standards and regulations that ensure quality of fruit, fairness of competition, recognition of achievement, fellowship and education for all participating growers and weigh-off sites.
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WEBSITE: https://gpc1.org
 
In case you were wondering how big blueberries can be ...

RecordBlueberry.jpeg
Australian couple's heavy blueberry breaks Guinness record

An Australian couple were awarded a Guinness World Record for growing the world's heaviest blueberry, which weighs in at more than half an ounce.

Guinness confirmed the blueberry grown by David and Leasa Mazzardis, founders and owners of the Nature's Select breeding program in Wilbinga, Western Australia, set a new world record at 0.57 ounces. ...

The berry has a diameter of 1.4 inches. ...
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SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/1...ueberry-breaks-Guinness-record/8751601913899/

GUINNESS ENTRY: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/heaviest-blueberry
 
I had blueberries tonight. I wonder if they lose or gain flavour at that size?
 
Meanwhile, in Germany ...
Monster pumpkin weighing almost 1,600 lbs wins annual prize in Germany

A man from Bavaria has won this year's award for the heaviest pumpkin grown in Germany, with his winning entry weighing in at a whopping 1,588 pounds (720.5 kilos).

Michael Asam, from Heretshausen, received the top prize at the annual German Pumpkin Weighing Championship, which took place in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg on Sunday.

Although Asam managed to narrowly beat the competition from another grower whose plant weighed 1,549 pounds (702.6 kilos), he was a long way short of the championship record of 2020.5 pounds (916.5 kilos), which was set two years ago. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/05/europe/heaviest-pumpkin-germany-bavarian-grower-scli-intl/index.html
 
Double barrelled banana

Tom Symes, from Horsham, West Sussex, bought the banana from his local Tesco at Broadbridge Heath on Friday.

Tom said: ‘I didn’t realise what I had in my basket until I got it home. When I opened it I saw that the bit where they joined in the middle was really weird. It was completely flat.
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1602158501110.png
 
This year's biggest pumpkin at the biggest American big pumpkin competition weighed in at 2,350 pounds, which isn't a world's record.
Pumpkin weighing 2,350 pounds wins California contest

Travis Gienger, of Anoka, Minnesota, spent a lot of his free time in the pumpkin patch in his backyard, watering his plants up to 10 times a day and feeding and fertilizing them at least twice each day.

Gienger, 40, then drove his gargantuan gourd for 35 hours to see his hard work pay off at the 47th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, where his winner came in at 2,350 pounds (1,066 kilograms). ...

The first-time pumpkin champ won $16,450, or $7 per pound, for the lumpy, orange pumpkin that will be showcased during a parade through Half Moon Bay later Monday.

Gienger’s pumpkin was the second-heaviest ever weighed at the 40-year-old California event, but it was still far from a U.S. record. That was set in 2018 when a grower in New Hampshire produced a pumpkin weighing more than 2,500 pounds (1,134 kilograms).

The record for the heaviest pumpkin in the world was set in 2016 at the Giant Pumpkin European Championship in Ludwigsburg, Germany. A Belgium grower’s winning whopper came in at just over 2,600 pounds (1,179 kilograms).
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FULL STORY (With Photo):
https://apnews.com/article/californ...an-francisco-12f76be20c1923375b0f980a4dc8387f
 
BushelGourd-Connolly-2020.JPG
Massachusetts man grows record-breaking 470.5-pound gourd

A Massachusetts man said a prize item from his garden could be headed for the Guinness Book of World Records after he grew a 470.5-pound bushel gourd.

Steve Connolly, who has been growing giant pumpkins for about 30 years and started working on growing massive bushel gourds for about four years, said his 470.5-pound behemoth is being submitted to Guinness as a new world record. ...

The current record holder is a 384-pound, 8-ounce gourd grown in Tennessee in 2018. ...
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SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/1...cord-breaking-4705-pound-gourd/3901603300171/
 
Isn't there a point beyond which, even vegetable-lovers, find them oddly un-arousing? :thought:
 
A Canadian farmer has broken the Guinness record for heaviest turnip - by a long shot ...

GiantTurnip-2102.jpg
Canadian gardener's 63.9-pound turnip breaks Guinness record

A Canadian farmer broke a Guinness World Record when he grew a 63.9-pound turnip in his garden.

Damien Allard of Carleton-sur-Mer, Quebec, said he decided to take on the world record ... when he ... discovered the world record has stood at 39 pounds since 2004. ...

Allard said he grew three turnips in late 2020 that all broke the record: a 50.49-pounder, a a 53.79-pound vegetable and the new record-holder, a 63.9-pound turnip.

... Guinness confirmed this week that he was now the holder of the record for the world's heaviest turnip.
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SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/0...-turnip-breaks-Guinness-record/7321613147181/
 
Arrgh!! I knew we had a thread on this subject. On Sunday I searched for it using the term 'vegetable' but was unsuccessful. I therefore posted an item about the above-mentioned turnip on another thread. It should have occurred to me to look under 'Fortean Flora'. Apologies for the duplication.
 
GingerTabby said:
Arrgh!! I knew we had a thread on this subject. On Sunday I searched for it using the term 'vegetable' but was unsuccessful. I therefore posted an item about the above-mentioned turnip on another thread. It should have occurred to me to look under 'Fortean Flora'. Apologies for the duplication.
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Not a problem ...
 
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