FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Go big or gourd home! is the mantra one Aurora firefighter apparently lives by after growing another giant pumpkin that shattered records in three states during a competition in Fort Collins Saturday.
Brad Bledsoe's 2,190-pound pumpkin, Sarah Sanderson, was the winner among 18 other chonky gourds grown by competitors from Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming at the Fort Collins Nursery's Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off.
This is Bledsoe's second plump pumpkin to gain notoriety in the competitive pumpkin-growing world. Winnie Sanderson, a 2,083-pound pumpkin, was recently crowned the largest pumpkin ever grown in Colorado.
Bledsoe lets his family choose the pumpkins' names. This year, they decided to name the three pumpkins after the Sanderson sisters—Mary, Winifred, and Sarah—from Disney's "Hocus Pocus."
Aurora
Oh my gourd! Aurora firefighter grows record-breaking 1-ton pumpkin
Bledsoe is a fire medic with Aurora Fire Rescue but spends his free time exercising his green thumb in his family's backyard greenhouse. He worked at a nursery before becoming a firefighter.
By the way, the current world record for a grown pumpkin is 2,749 pounds out of Minnesota.
His next goal is to grow a pumpkin that weighs more than 2,500 pounds and breaks the world record. You can follow his progress on his social media channels.
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