Frias first won the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off, the festival’s main event, in 2009, which is also when he first began growing giant pumpkins. This year he grew the giant gourd in Napa for 180 days to achieve its final size, earning him a $7,000 prize along with bragging rights throughout Northern California pumpkin patches.

“ (It includes) pumpkins, gourds, watermelons, long gourds (and) tomatoes. We hit an 11-pound tomato yesterday,” Heather Sairs, the president of Nekoosa’s Giant Pumpkin Festival, said about the contest.

The annual festival, which will continue from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Riverside Park, 916 Prospect Ave. in Nekoosa, featured events like carnival rides, games, children's activities, raffle baskets, craft vendors, food, an antique tractor and small engine show and pumpkins − very large pumpkins.

Pumpkin growers on Friday hauled the heftiest of their harvest to the Topsfield Fair, which opened its 10-day run with the 40th Annual All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off.

Leticia Ordaz reports from the Giant Pumpkin Festival in Elk Grove. Yahoo Personal Finance