Eddie Zaychkowsky has been growing pumpkins on his rural property northeast of Calgary for almost two decades, but never anything quite like the giant surprise the summer of 2018 brought.
Zaychkowsky figures it might have grown even bigger if Alberta hadn’t been hit by heavy smoke drifting over from summer wildfires in British Columbia.
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And while the scale shows it’s the biggest pumpkin ever grown in Canada, it won’t earn Zaychkowsky a national record.
But Zaychkowsky’s giant gourd is still getting pumpkin people pretty pumped.
“We already have a waiting list of people that want these seeds,” he said. “From New Zealand to England to Australia.”
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And he’s keeping his fingers crossed that next summer wildfires won’t again smoke him out of that potential record.
“Oh yeah, we’re going to come back,” Zaychkowsky said. “And it’s going to be bigger!”
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