Year five and six students at Danthonia, the Bruderhof Christian community near Inverell, will display their prowess as producers during Sydney Royal Show by displaying an Atlantic Giant pumpkin, grown on irrigation and carefully nurtured during drought.
According to teacher Jon Blough the 254 kilogram Cucurbita maxima will feature as part of the Northern District exhibit, on show in the dome at Sydney Showground.
For Mr Blough, the experience brought back memories of his father Steve producing a similar sized pumpkin when he was a child in Kingston, New York. Later, working as a teacher on another Bruderhof community, "Beechgrove" in Kent, England, Mr Blough helped grow one so large it placed second at the London Royal Show - behind another Bruderhof teacher.
At Inverell the giant pumpkin put on 9kg a day, fed on rich compost, sheltered from the January sun under shade cloth strung from an old Hills Hoist and drip irrigated with up to 1000 litres a day.