California engineer wins 2025 Safeway Pumpkin Weigh-Off with 2,346-pound gourd

Charlie Brown has nothing compared to Brandon Dawson’s great pumpkin, the 2025 Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off champion. Dawson’s giant jack-o-lantern tipped the scales at 2,346 pounds.

The crowd at Half Moon Bay saw history in the making when the Santa Rose, California, engineer rolled in a gourd so massive, even the forklift groaned. 

Not only did Dawson win with the heaviest gourd, but he won by more than 300 pounds. The second-place winner weighed 2,017 pounds, and the third-place winner weighed 1,805 pounds.

This year’s win was a bit sweeter after Dawson came close last year.

“I was in this position last year, but I lost by six pounds,” Dawson said. “This year, I was able to take the win, and that’s really what the goal was this year: to win one of the best, if not the best, pumpkin weigh-ups in the world.”

The satisfaction of a job well done isn’t all Dawson won. He received a pretty big slice of the pie: a $21,114 prize. Plus, he took home an additional $1,000 for having the biggest gourd in the state of California.

Dawson’s pumpkin growing efforts

Dawson said he used the same precision he brings to his engineering job — measuring sunlight, temperature and even water flow — to turn his patch into a science project. He said he has been growing massive pumpkins for five years.

He said he enjoys getting his kids, a 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter, involved in the growing process.

“We like to spend time out in the patch and watch the thing grow,” Dawson said. “My 4-year-old now can really pay attention to the growing process,” especially since the giant pumpkins can grow by 50 to 70 pounds a day.”

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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief

Ella Greene

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