Did you know that the French champion for the largest marrow zucchini lives in the English Channel? His name is Samuel Brault and all the magic happens in his garden in Dézert (you can’t make this up), near Saint-Lô. For several years, he has been growing squash, pumpkins and giant pumpkins there, until he reached “42 kilos for a Marrow zucchini” – a record in France. “I also have the record for Bushel gourd with 84 kilos“.
These are in all four French records owned by the father of the family. And this Saturday, September 28 morning, around ten friends and relatives came to help him load new vegetables weighing several dozen kilos into three vans, heading to Vendée. The Pays de la Loire department is hosting the national giant vegetable competition on Sunday, organized by the Potager Extraordinaire, in La Roche-sur-Yon. And Samuel Brault hopes to beat his personal records.
Seeds to germinate “in an egg incubator”
So he pampers his vegetables. All are surrounded by mattresses to prevent them from being damaged during transport. A hole and it’s “la disqualification”. Which would destroy the dozens and dozens of hours spent in the garden, watering, protecting, growing.”until you get the biggest possible, the most beautiful possible.” But be careful, “you should not water too much, otherwise they will explode, specifies the gardener, a trained cook. But if you don’t water enough, they don’t develop properly. The pumpkin in front of us has barely seen the light of day: he is permanently covered with a white sheet. This allows his skin to remain as tender as possible so that he can expand.” A pumpkin that took up to “13 kilos per day”.
Over the years, Samuel Brault has developed his techniques to develop giant vegetables: “You have to file all around the seeds. I then put them to germinate in an egg incubator.” Without forgetting, once planted, “to remove the tertiary stems”.
Techniques passed down to his son Tom, who also started growing giant vegetables. He is also one of his father’s competitors in the national Extraordinary Vegetable Garden competition. A lover of more giant vegetables.
