Frias first won the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off, the festival’s main event, in 2009, which is also when he first began growing giant pumpkins. This year he grew the giant gourd in Napa for 180 days to achieve its final size, earning him a $7,000 prize along with bragging rights throughout Northern California pumpkin patches.

“ (It includes) pumpkins, gourds, watermelons, long gourds (and) tomatoes. We hit an 11-pound tomato yesterday,” Heather Sairs, the president of Nekoosa’s Giant Pumpkin Festival, said about the contest.

Leticia Ordaz reports from the Giant Pumpkin Festival in Elk Grove. Yahoo Personal Finance