Cindy Tobeck, a Tumwater teacher who grows giant squash and pumpkins, gets to add a few more plaques to her collection, placing highly at three national weigh-off events in Washington, Oregon and California over the past couple weeks.
She may even have a new world record, after her largest green squash weighed in at 1,884 pounds on Oct. 10 at the Bauman's Farm weigh-off in Gervais, Oregon.
Tobeck said she's keeping her fingers crossed that nothing larger is weighed in over the next few days. She said she hasn't heard any rumors of any that are bigger.
"This coming weekend are the last of the weigh-offs worldwide, and I don't anticipate any problems as these last events are generally small with less prize money, so typically smaller pumpkins and squash compete," Tobeck said.
Her pumpkin came in second place overall at the Oregon weigh-off, getting beaten out by another Olympia resident, Jeff Uhlmeyer, with a pumpkin weighing 1,998.5 pounds, according to Bauman's Farm's social media.
Uhlmeyer also placed higher overall than Tobeck at the Bishop's Farm weigh-off in Sacramento with a 1,956-pound pumpkin, landing him in fourth place with a $3,000 prize. Tobeck came in eighth place with a squash weighing in at 1,592 pounds, the largest squash there, but nearly 300 pounds lighter than the giant she hopes will conquer the world.
Tobeck said she won Washington's biggest weigh-off at Carpinito Bros. in Kent with a pumpkin weighing 1,953.5 pounds. The top prize was $6,000.