ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (WTRF) – This year’s King Pumpkin from the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival is now spending the week outside Chick-fil-A at the Ohio Valley Mall.
Every year, the King Pumpkin is sold, and this year it brought the highest price yet of $13,000. That makes it the most expensive pumpkin ever.
A group of St. Clairsville businesses bought King Pumpkin.
This is the first time ever that it was bought by anyone outside Barnesville.
Four businesses; Kirke’s Ice Cream, Thomas Auto Centers, Chick-fil-A and Harvey Goodman Realtor were impressed by this record-breaking vegetable.
2405 pounds. It’s the largest pumpkin ever grown in Ohio or Pennsylvania and it’s a world’s record holder for this year’s growing season.
Kirke Porterfield, Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream
It’s a nice thing to do. Barnesville’s a nice town and the Pumpkin Festival’s a great place to be. What a better place, if you’re gonna get the pumpkin, what better place to put it than here in St. Clairsville.
Robert Thomas, Thomas Auto Centers
We paid a pretty penny for this pumpkin, but all those dollars are local dollars and they stay local and support the Barnesville community, so we’re happy to have a little piece of the Pumpkin Festival this year and look forward to next year.
Jay Goodman, Co-Owner, Harvey Goodman Realtor
We get lots of families that come in and like to play on our playground and this is just something special that we can add to their journey here to Chick-fil-A so we’re having a lot of fun with it.
Janet Austin, Culture & Community Director, Chick-fil-A
King Pumpkin will be at Chick-Fil-A until Sunday morning.
Then the farmer that raised it will take it back to his farm and harvest the seeds. Those seeds will be sold to hopeful prospective farmers and gardeners.
The money goes back to the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival.