Reader's Digest - USA (2019-07)

chris kent, age 56,

Sevierville, Tennessee

dangerous. My wife

takes a piece of paper

and writes down the

weight because people

always mouth “How

much?” and you just

hold up the paper to

tell them.

Do you use some kind

of magic seeds?

We use Carolina Cross.

It’s the only variety that

gets this big. We breed

our own. We even

hand-pollinate them.

What’s the hardest

thing about growing a

Your 327.5-pound

watermelon broke the

fair’s record last year.

How did you even get it

to the fair in one piece?

I used four guys and

a tarp made with

special handles. We

rolled the watermelon

onto one side, put the

tarp underneath it,

and rolled it back onto

the other side. Then

everybody grabbed

a corner, and we slid

it into the back of my

hatchback car.

You must be quite

the sight on the road.

We’ll be driving on the

interstate and people

will pull up right beside

us—it’s borderline

300-pound watermelon?

The rabbits and mice,

because they’ll chew

on the vines. I put out

mousetraps, and I have

a BB gun. I even put

coyote urine around

the garden because

coyotes are a natural

predator. Rabbits won’t

go near it if they think

coyotes are out.

As the 2018 weigh-off

winner, Kent was paid

$6 per pound for his

watermelon, which

came to $1,965.

The North Carolina

State Fair

WATERMELON

WEIGH-OFF

rd.com 17

Reader’s Digest

illustration by John Cuneo

I WON!