This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories.

Send them to Our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites. And today, we have a story

from Rhode Islander Joe Jutris. Joe is a retired cabinet maker, and since his retirement,

he has dedicated most of his time to growing giant fruit and vegetable. In 2017, he broke the

record for the largest green squash ever grown, coming in at 2118 pounds.

Here's Joe with his story.

I've been growing giant vegetables now for the last 25 years.

Got started years ago just by accident.

I started growing vegetables in my backyard.

I threw in a giant pumpkin seed.

I grew it to 124 pounds.

And from then on, I was hooked.

A couple of years later, I got hooked up with a gentleman here in Rhode Island.

His name is John Castellucci.

He's like the godfather of pumpkin growing here in New England.

He started in the early 90s.

He had great success, real gentleman, helped anybody that wanted to learn how to grow pumpkins.

So my friend Steve Sferri and I, we spent a lot of time in his house just drinking some beers

and learning how to grow pumpkins.

And from then on, we just got hooked and enjoyed growing, met people from all over the world.

This hobby attracts people from all strains of life, from cabinet makers to scientists.

There seems to be an addictive quality to growing these giant fruits and vegetables.

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