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Monday, October 19, 2020

‘We’re like athletes’: the secret lives of giant-vegetable growers

From onions as big as babies to pumpkins that weigh more than a car, it has been a record-breaking year for oversize veg. But what motivates someone to grow an 8-metre beetroot – and is skulduggery involved?

The pumpkins are as big as Cinderella’s carriage, and so heavy that a tractor is required to hoist them out of the earth. Immense, pockmarked marrows bulge from the ground like something from a phantasmagoric nightmare. Cucumbers soar to the height of a four-year-old. Onions bloat to the size of a head. You can have your giant vegetables in any size, as long as it is large, extra-large or extra-extra-large.

For Britain’s giant-vegetable growers, 2020 has been a vintage year. Three world records were set on this year’s Grow Show tour in September: the world’s heaviest red cabbage (31.6kg), the world’s longest salsify (5.6 metres) and the world’s longest beetroot (8.6 metres). This month, Ian and Stuart Paton, 59-year-old twins from Lymington in Hampshire, grew the UK’s heaviest-ever pumpkin, which weighed in at a monstrous 1,176.5kg.

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