Giant pumpkins, blue ribbon biscuits, America 250 ferris wheel: NC State Fair returns to Raleigh

[upbeat music] This is Due South on WUNC News.

I'm Leoneda Inge.

The North Carolina State Fair is the biggest event of its kind in the South.

Every October, nearly a million visitors flock to Raleigh, enticed by fried food and carnival fun.

And while everyone loves a good funnel cake, each year one section of the fair is by far the most popular, the giant pumpkin exhibit.

Our colleagues at WUNC's podcast, The Broadside, find out what it takes to harvest a champion.

Here's editor Jarrett Walker.

[machinery roaring] A little over a year ago, I attended the North Carolina State Fair, where I witnessed a surreal scene.

[forklift beeping] Massive pumpkins, some of them weighing more than a ton, being carted around by forklifts and tractors.

This event was a weigh-off.

It's part of a major regional competition that attracts competitive growers from around the Southeast.

Each year, they vie for the title of heaviest gourd, and in the final round, one of these behemoths visibly dwarfed them all.

So are you ready, Chris?

Chris Rothebaugh from Lewisburg, West Virginia, waited in anticipation for the official call, the culmination of five months of hard work.

Oh.

[laughs] [crowd cheering] Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

At a whopping 2,206 pounds, it was the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded at the North Carolina State Fair.

[crowd cheering] Yeah.

[crowd applauding]

When you go to a fair or you see one of these monsters, that, that's a pretty amazing thing.

[gentle music] Jonathan Schultheis is a professor of horticultural science at North Carolina State University.

He studies cucurbits, which include cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins.

I have a picture here when I was at the fair, and it was in 2013, okay, at the state fair in North Carolina, and the winner or the Blue Ribbon Award went to the pumpkin that was 799.6 pounds.

So it's amazing.

[upbeat music] This is Due South on WUNC News.

I'm Leoneda Inge.

The North Carolina State Fair is the biggest event of its kind in the South.

Every October, nearly a million visitors flock to Raleigh, enticed by fried food and carnival fun.

And while everyone loves a good funnel cake, each year one section of the fair is by far the most popular, the giant pumpkin exhibit.

Our colleagues at WUNC's podcast, The Broadside, find out what it takes to harvest a champion.

Here's editor Jarrett Walker.

[machinery roaring] A little over a year ago, I attended the North Carolina State Fair, where I witnessed a surreal scene.

[forklift beeping] Massive pumpkins, some of them weighing more than a ton, being carted around by forklifts and tractors.

This event was a weigh-off.

It's part of a major regional competition that attracts competitive growers from around the Southeast.

Each year, they vie for the title of heaviest gourd, and in the final round, one of these behemoths visibly dwarfed them all.

So are you ready, Chris?

Chris Rothebaugh from Lewisburg, West Virginia, waited in anticipation for the official call, the culmination of five months of hard work.

Oh.

[laughs] [crowd cheering] Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

At a whopping 2,206 pounds, it was the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded at the North Carolina State Fair.

[crowd cheering] Yeah.

[crowd applauding]

When you go to a fair or you see one of these monsters, that, that's a pretty amazing thing.

[gentle music] Jonathan Schultheis is a professor of horticultural science at North Carolina State University.

He studies cucurbits, which include cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins.

I have a picture here when I was at the fair, and it was in 2013, okay, at the state fair in North Carolina, and the winner or the Blue Ribbon Award went to the pumpkin that was 799.6 pounds.

So it's amazing.