What is likely the largest pumpkin ever weighed in Tennessee is sitting by the entrance to The Barn Nursery with a fresh $1,500 carving job.
Cole Webster, owner of Chattanooga’s largest independent garden center, said he’s spent $10,000 on the 2,109.5-pound pumpkin.
He paid the grower, Don Barron from Michigan, $5,500 for first place during the inaugural Great Chattanooga Weigh-Off on Oct. 10. The Barn Nursery hosted the event, an official competition sanctioned by the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.
Webster got connected with a network of giant pumpkin growers and a giant pumpkin broker (yes, that’s a real job) last year as he searched for The Barn Nursery’s annual giant pumpkin. For years, the garden center has displayed one, but its go-to local grower has had crop failures recently, Webster said. Last year, Webster bought the prize-winning pumpkin at the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville.
He got the idea to host an official weigh-in this year through the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, an organization he described as the NCAA of giant fruit and vegetables.