Woody Lancaster, an 80-Year-Old Topsfield Grower, Set a New Topsfield Fair Record With a 2,598-Pound Pumpkin

At 80, Woody Lancaster went out on top. The Topsfield, Massachusetts, grower won the 42nd All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off at the Topsfield Fair with a 2,598-pound pumpkin, the heaviest ever weighed at the fair, and said this season would be his last.

The win capped roughly three decades of growing giants in his hometown, where the weigh-off has been held since 1984.

2,598 pounds on the Topsfield scale

Lancaster’s pumpkin beat the fair record of 2,507 pounds set last year by Alex Noel of Abington, Connecticut, according to the Boston Globe. That is 91 pounds more than the old mark. The pumpkin was pollinated in July and put on about 58 pounds a day through the summer.

He told the Globe he had been growing pumpkins for the better part of 30 years and that the hobby can take up to four hours a day. Knowing this was his final season, he took a chance and pushed his plants harder by changing his fertilizer mix. He said he did everything he could this year, and that most hobby growers do not put in that kind of effort.

When the weight was announced, family, friends and other growers crowded around him, and he was lifted up for photos. His total winnings came to more than $10,000, the Globe reported.

It was not his first Topsfield title. Lancaster also won in 2013 with a 1,746.5-pound pumpkin and in 2017 with one that weighed 2,003.5 pounds.

How the top five finished

The fair’s official pumpkin weigh-in page lists the 2026 results, with Lancaster first, Larry and Shawna Masters of East Nassau, New York, second at 2,220 pounds, and Joe Jutras of North Scituate, Rhode Island, third at 2,197 pounds. Lancaster’s winner outweighed second place by 378 pounds.

The Masters had hoped their pumpkin, nicknamed Toad, would reach 2,500 pounds, and Larry Masters told the Globe he was very disappointed. John and Kerry Young of Jericho, Vermont, finished fourth with 1,876 pounds.

Fifth place went to the youngest grower near the top. Alistair Lehto, 11, of Fitchburg, brought in a 1,815-pound pumpkin and won $500 as junior grower of the year.

Twenty-one pumpkins were entered. The winner and the four runners-up were put on display for the rest of the fair, which ran through Oct. 12.

A weigh-off with a long record book

The Topsfield contest started in 1984, growing out of the Family Garden Largest Cucurbit Contest, according to the fair. In 1989 the New England Pumpkin Growers Association formed and made Topsfield its official weigh-off site. Today an entry must weigh at least 300 pounds to be weighed.

The scale in Topsfield has produced several milestones. In 2002 Charlie Houghton’s 1,337.6-pound pumpkin was recognized as the largest ever grown. Joe Jutras set a 1,689-pound mark there in 2007. In 2012 Ron Wallace’s 2,009-pound pumpkin was billed as the first one-ton pumpkin, and Steve Connolly’s 2,075.5-pound entry set a Massachusetts record the same day. Jamie Graham’s 2,480-pound pumpkin set the fair record in 2022 before Noel broke it last year.

Lancaster is part of that history beyond his own wins. He is a longtime co-chair of the fair’s opening-night event, and the fair lists him as the contact for its pumpkin weigh-in. The Globe reported that he also serves as a New England representative to the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.

Where the pumpkin ranks this season

The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth is the organization that sets competition rules for giant pumpkins worldwide, recognizes records and champions, and certifies the judges who oversee each weigh-off through a training module and test. On its 2026 overall pumpkin leaderboard, Lancaster’s 2,598-pound pumpkin, listed under the name Woodrow Lancaster, ranked seventh among more than 1,600 entries as of Oct. 27. The same list shows a second Lancaster pumpkin of 2,309 pounds weighed at the Frerichs Farms weigh-off in Rhode Island.

The very top of this year’s list is in a different class. A 3,156-pound pumpkin grown by Ron Wallace was weighed at Frerichs Farm in Warren, Rhode Island, on Oct. 10 and is now recognized by Guinness World Records as the heaviest pumpkin ever.

The site’s earlier coverage of that record, and of Travis Gienger’s fifth Half Moon Bay title, shows how crowded the top of the sport has become, with several growers on the leaderboard clearing 2,500 pounds this season.

A mentor’s last season

Lancaster’s influence will outlast his final pumpkin. Henry Swenson, 24, grows on Lancaster’s land under his guidance. Swenson’s pumpkin fought disease this year and weighed 1,246 pounds, the Globe reported.

Lancaster summed up the craft by saying a seed about the size of a thumbnail can become a 2,500-pound pumpkin with enough work. This year it became 98 pounds more than that, and a new line in the Topsfield record book.

For backyard growers who have watched their own pumpkins stall at a few hundred pounds, the numbers show what decades of practice can produce. The first pumpkin to pass 3,000 pounds came out of a Rhode Island patch only eight days after Lancaster’s win.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Nick Ares – CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons