TOPSFIELD - Eighty-year-old Woody Lancaster, hauled his giant gourd to the Topsfield Fair Friday night for the 42nd All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off.
A longtime co-chair of the fair’s signature opening night event, Lancaster said the weigh-off would be his last.
And he went out a champ.
His 2,598-pound pumpkin set a new record at the fair, which drew 21 entries. ( The record had been set last year by Alex Noel of Abington, Conn., whose pumpkin weight 2,507 pounds.)
“It feels great,” Lancaster said of ending his backyard hobby on top.
After he was announced as the winner, family, friends and fellow growers surrounded him.
“Hurry up, my son’s back is giving out,” Lancaster quipped, as he was hoisted on friends’ and family’s shoulders for celebratory pictures.
In addition to bragging rights, Lancaster won more than $10,000 in prize money. His pumpkin, and four runners up, will be on display throughout the fair, which ends Oct. 12.
The weigh-off is open to dues-paying members of New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Association, which accepts members from outside the region.
But special bonus prize money is given to top winners from New England.
Larry and Shauna Masters, who live just over the Mass. line in New York state, placed second with their 2,220- pound pumpkin named “Toad.”
“I’m very dissapointed,” Larry Masters said, noting he hoped to tip the scales at 2,500.
Third place went to a 2,197-pounder grown by Joe Jutras of Rhode Island. John and Kerry Young of Jericho, Vt. came in fourth with a 1,876 pound pumpkin.
Eleven-year-old Alistair Lehto of Fitchburg, took home fifth place and $500 for junior grower of the year. His pumpkin weighed 1,815-pounds.
The weigh-off kicks of the fair that is run by the nonprofit Essex Agricultural Society. Lancaster feels pretty good about the future of competitive giant pumpkin growing.
“Fortunately we get young folks [competing]…a lot of us are aging out,” said Lancaster, who is also a New England representative to the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, the global governing body of the competitions.
He’s mentored Henry Swenson, 24, who grows pumpkins on Lancaster’s land.
Swenson started growing pumpkins soon after seeing the giants at Topsfield when he was 13-years-old. He has competed at the fair eight times.
He had tough luck this summer. His pumpkin battled disease and weighed 1,246 pounds on the fair’s scale.
“I’m just happy to be here,” said Swenson, who set a Guiness World Record in 2021 for growing a 65.5 pound butternut squash.
Cindy Tobeck, president of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, judged this year’s competition.
“I’m so grateful to be able to be invited to Topsfield,” said Tobeck, a fifth-grade teacher in Olympia, Wash.
She’s been growing and judging giant fruits for 15 years.
As a judge, she said she’s looking for soft spots, holes, chemical residue and rot: all things that could eliminate a grower.
New England has a good crop of growers, she said.
“There’s a real dedicated group of growers here in the northeast,” Tobeck said.
Lancaster spent the better part of 30 years growing. The hobby can take up to four hours out of his day.
“Most [hobby] farmers won’t put in the effort we do,” he said.
“I can take a seed the size of your thumbnail and then it into a 2,500 pound pumpkin.”
For his last stand at Topsfield, Lancaster changed up his fertilizer mix. His gourd pollinated in July, and gained about 58 pounds each day, he said.
“Being my last year I took a chance…and pushed them,” Lancaster said. “I did everything I could this year.”
Madyline Swearing can be reached at madyline.swearing@globe.com.