World’s Largest Jackfruit
(images via: West Delray Community Blog, Panasam Wonders and Americanepali)
A native plant of Southern and Southeast Asia, Jackfruit bears the distinction of being the largest tree-born fruit with ripe specimens often exceeding 36 inches (90 cm) in length and 80 pounds (36 kg) in weight. This useful fruit stars in a huge variety of regional recipes and is beginning to make inroads in the western hemisphere, though some countries (Brazil, in particular) consider it an invasive species.
(image via: Hawaiifruit.net)
The world’s heaviest Jackfruit was truly a giant among giants. Grown in Hawaii where Jackfruit has been cultivated since the late 1880s, this monster from the summer of 2003 weighed 34.6kg (just over 76 lb) and was 57.46cm (22.625″) long.
World’s Largest Peaches
(images via: Davis Peach Farm and Clemson University Horticulture)
The Flamin’Fury® PF 24-007™ Peach has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the largest type of Peach. Originated at Paul Friday Farms in Coloma, Michigan, these Peaches measure 2.5″ to 3″ in diameter at maturity. “I’m going to the country, gonna eat a lotta peaches…” If you’re in southwestern Michigan, maybe not quite as many as you thought!
(images via: Quacked, Fill Your Plate and Eil.com)
Peaches have managed to find a warm and fuzzy place in our collective psyche for some reason. Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, the Allman Brothers Band’s 1972 classic album Eat A Peach, even “The World’s Largest Peach” (actually a peach-shaped water tower) in Gaffney, South Carolina all prove that if life gives you good peaches you can easily deal with the pits.
World’s Largest Lemons
(images via: AwazPK, Reflections of Reality and Raymond Longaray)
When the world needs lemonade, make sure you’ve got the world’s heaviest lemons… those weighing 5.265 kg (11 pounds, 9.7 ounces) and grown by Aharon Shemoel of Kfar Zeitim, Israel in early 2003 will do quite nicely. Other larger-than-life lemons of note are grown along the Amalfi Coast in Italy, where they’re used to make a drink called Lemoncello. Pucker up, buttercup!
(images via: Azecology and Emily Haile)
Shemoel’s uber-lemons may have been surpassed by an even larger fruit from the Pakistani city of Sargodha. Grown by Nasir Hassan, a farmer from the village of Pir Djumala, this lemon weighed 5.5 kg and was the fruit of Hassan’s 10 long years of labor.
World’s Largest Pineapples
(images via: World Records Academy and NT News)
Pineapples are the Terminators of the fruit family: they’re big, well-protected and will cut you if you’re not careful. There’s a hierarchy among Terminators, however, and a certain spiky specimen grown in Palmerston, Australia is the baddest of the bunch… or at least, the heaviest. Christine McCallum grows pineapple to keep wayward dogs and grandchildren off her garden and the 8.2 kg (18.08 lb), 32cm (12.8″) long record-breaker probably kept the mailman on his toes as well.
(images via: Africam and Daily Mail UK)
People like pineapples; how else to account for the plethora of giant pineapple sculptures, silos, water towers and even burial caskets? We can’t, and there’s no use Hawaiian about it.
World’s Largest Watermelons
(images via: Caton’s Chapel and WBIR)
If records were meant to be broken, than watermelons will be grown to break them. The latest heavyweight champion of the watermelon variety comes from Sevier County, Tennessee, and weighs in at a whopping 291 pounds. The monster “Carolina Cross” melon shattered the previous record of 268 pounds held by a watermelon from Arkansas.
(image via: William Billard)
Someday all watermelons will look like this… presumably after the alien pod people have snatched our bodies and completed their takeover.
(image via: Kris Vmur)
Gotta a fever for formidable fruit a foray to the farm just can’t satisfy? Then take a trip to Kiwi360, the “world’s largest fruit based theme park” in the unfortunately named Te Puke, New Zealand. Going full Homer Simpson on the 100-steps-to-the-top Giant Kiwi Fruit is discouraged, though.

