TOPSFIELD — Twenty-three pumpkins had already been weighed and the largest contender was 800 pounds, but there were still 23 pumpkins left — and they were enormous.
These pumpkins sat on platforms scattered about the arena, monstrous and misshapen. They weren't round; they looked deflated, crushed by their extreme weight. Their skins were gray and cracked from the strain of rapid growth. But they were definitely big, and that was all that mattered.
The pumpkins all weighed over 900 pounds and the applause grew louder as each pumpkin proved an even greater weight. Then it was time for the final pumpkin to face the scale.
Linda Rodonis had her hands to her mouth and her eyes were wide as she watched the forklift pick up the harnessed pumpkin she had grown with her husband, Bill.
A team of five men stood nearby as the pumpkin was slowly lowered onto the scale and all eyes turned to the electronic weight display.
The numbers bounced around until they finally settled on 1,471.6 pounds, this year's winner of the Topsfield Fair's Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off.
Bill Rodonis, of Litchfield, N.H., hasn't always grown pumpkins this big.
"I started in 2003 and I was just learning," said Mr. Rodonis. "My first pumpkin was 300 pounds."
At one point a 300-pound pumpkin might have been a winner. Wayne Hackney, the winner of the first Topsfield Fair giant pumpkin contest in 1983, won with a 433 pound pumpkin.
"It was the largest pumpkin ever grown in New England," said Hackney, who was at this year's competition sporting a bright orange tuxedo and top hat. "And last year I had a 1,134-pounder in 12th place!"
Hackey, who is from New Hampshire but now lives in Connecticut, didn't submit a pumpkin this year because animals got into his garden and ate the vines.
"But wait 'til next year," he said with a grin.
Joe Jutras, the former Guinness World Record holder for largest pumpkin, was at the fair this year too. Jutras, from Rhode Island, won in 2007 with a 1,689-pound pumpkin, though this year his was only 1,187-pounds.
When asked about the grayish color of the pumpkins, Jutras replied, "When you're trying to grow heavy, it's hard to get consistent color. A lot of guys grow for pretty."
Jutras had suspected at the time of the Topsfield weigh-off that his world record might be beaten by a grower in Ohio, and he was right; Christy Harp grew a 1,725-pound pumpkin this year. But Jutras wasn't too upset.
"It's off my seed," he said. "So, if I have to be beat, I'd rather it be off my seed."
Though the winner this year wasn't a world record, Bill Rodonis does hold a few records. One of his past pumpkins, a 1,556-pounder, was the largest pumpkin grown in New Hampshire. And he did hold the world record in 2007 — for 20 minutes, until Jutras had his pumpkin weighed.
But the Rodonises couldn't have been happier this year.
"Oh, god! He's missed it two years!" Mrs. Rodonis said, after posing for photos with her husband and their pumpkin. "This is awesome, just awesome."
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