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Mark And The Giant Peach: Orchard Owner Enters Guinness World Records

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Peach season is almost over, but this year it's going out with a bang for Mark Angermayer of Tubby Fruits Peach Orchard just outside Kansas City.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Last week, he climbed up a tree to pick a few extra pounds of Lady Nancy peaches for a customer, and he noticed...

MARK ANGERMAYER: There was about a dozen of them that were just huge. They were almost cantaloupe sized.

SHAPIRO: So Angermayer decided to find out if one of these peaches was not just big but world record big.

ANGERMAYER: The current official record right now is 725 grams, and our peach came in at 763 grams.

SHAPIRO: That's more than a pound and a half.

SIEGEL: But you can't just say it's so and get the world's heaviest peach title.

ANGERMAYER: Guinness World Records requires a really precise scale, so that was kind of hard to find, and then I had to find two horticultural experts to, you know, certify that the peach hadn't been tampered with, that it didn't have any cracks in the skin.

SIEGEL: It also had to be eaten after careful measurements in the lab. And Angermayer says it wasn't bland or mushy like some oversized peaches.

ANGERMAYER: This one was juicy, and it was sweet. You know, it was really good.

SHAPIRO: As evidence, Angermayer took video of the whole process from measuring to eating. He has now submitted his application to Guinness World Records. The official review could take 12 weeks.

SIEGEL: In the meantime, there are peaches to sell.

ANGERMAYER: I had regular customer just pull in now.

SIEGEL: But before we let Angermayer go, we had to ask, has he gotten any references to James and the Giant Peach?

ANGERMAYER: (Laughter) Yeah, it'd be really fitting if my name was James, but it's just not. It's just something simple like Mark.

SIEGEL: Well, Mark and the Giant Peach has a nice ring to it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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