Photos of Astoundingly Huge Gourds at a Pumpkin-Growing Championship

This article originally appeared on VICE Netherlands.

In late September, Dutch produce fans flocked to the city of Utrecht to feast their eyes on all sorts of overgrown oddities. The city’s botanical gardens plays host to both the Dutch Pumpkin-Growing Championship and the Dutch Chilli Fest.

Hot sauces were tasted, soup was guzzled, and attendees marvelled at the Atlantic Giant pumpkins, which grow so big and are so sturdy that there’s an annual Windsor Pumpkin Regatta held in Nova Scotia. One of the Dutch participants at the Utrecht competition told us that he once floated down a river in such a vehicle, only to be stopped by the water police: He didn’t have a boating license.

Pumpkins aside, other oversized vegetables were eligible to compete for prizes in categories like “largest string bean” and “biggest courgette”. The assembled jury took their measurements very seriously and controversy arose after it turned out that a participating pumpkin had, in fact, been crossed with a courgette. As you’d imagine, it was immediately disqualified. 

VICE photographer Raymond van Mil wasn’t in Utrecht just to capture the greenery and flushed faces — he was here to compete in the championship, entering a courgette from his grandmother’s garden into the competition. Weighing in at a hefty five and a half kilos, van Mil’s vegetable was triumphant. The fact that there were only two other courgettes contesting for the top spot didn’t take the shine off his victory.

Scroll down for more photos of a day out that felt like Halloween on steroids.