A southern Iowa man has grown a piece of fruit that’s destined to set a world record. A state official has verified that Dave Bennett of Davis County grew an eggplant that weighs 8.33 pounds.
“I’ve been growing eggplants for probably five years now,” Bennett told Radio Iowa. “Two years ago I set the state record at 5.6 pounds.”
Bennett picked up the hobby from his second cousin, a past winner of the Big Pumpkin competition at the Iowa State Fair. After growing pumpkins and watermelons, Bennett got intrigued with the purple fruit after meeting a Minnesotan who’d grown a four pound eggplant and the rest will be history. Bennett has been assured by a representative of Guinness World Records that his paperwork is in order.
“Eventually I will have a plaque that says I grew the world’s largest eggplant,” Bennett said.
The world’s largest eggplant is in Bennett’s refrigerator right now, in hopes of entering it in the Iowa State Fair. “I’m going to see what it looks like next week and I might make arrangements about bringing it up (to Des Moines). I don’t know yet,” Bennett said. “It might start wrinkling up and spoiling.”
An inspector with the Iowa Department of Agriculture’s Weights and Measures Bureau went to Davis County to weigh the eggplant this week. Bennett used greenhouse grade fabric to create a shade over the plant during its final days outside before it was measured. Bennett, when describing how a person winds up growing an 8.33 pound eggplant, said you start the growing season by planting “giant variety” seeds, then trim down the vine so it’s supporting just one eggplant.
“You just keep fertilizing and stuff like that and hope for the best,” he said.
Eggplant is often treated like a vegetable on the dinner table, but it’s actually a berry, so it’s a fruit. Bennett has never eaten eggplant and ordered it at a restaurant recently, but had to pay his bill and leave to make it to a concert before the dish was served.
