What's up everyone Kevin from Epic Gardening here and actually I have my UK

counterpart Kevin 40 of Giant Veg on the podcast today. I've been excited about having Kevin on for a long time because I've been

obsessed with giant vegetables for quite some time and it really seems like people in the UK are

experts at growing them and so I figured why not have the expert on the

podcast.

So today we're going to talk about the history of giant vegetables and it's a pretty interesting

history and Kevin 40 is pretty well connected to it. So Kevin thanks for coming on and do you mind giving us a little bit of background on how Giant Veg kind of got its its start.

Yes, it's good to meet the fellow Kevin and hopefully you're going to get the bug as well.

Yeah, yep. Yeah, but my dad started off UK giant vegetable growing in very early 1980s and in a local traditional British pub. It was over a chat really amongst fellow

pub goers and they challenged one other to see who could grow the biggest pumpkin.

And that lasted for about two years in that particular pub because the

pumpkins were getting that big that they couldn't get through the single pub

door so they had to have them outside of that time and as

usual the British weather is pretty inclement so they had to find a venue with double doors and from

there they went to Cumberland's club which is a

traditional workingman's venue in Wales and from there it basically mothballed

then into something which has become a worldwide phenomenon really.

And my dad started off all the art of growing giant vegetables in terms of seed saving and we'll talk to you again about how he

developed seed saving techniques.

And then from there the UK Giant Vegetable Championships went all over the UK and it now has ended up in

in Mulvan which is held every September and it's really as a spectacle.

Yeah, so when you say your dad started it in the UK, did he not only start it in the UK but also sort of started the phenomenon worldwide like before 1980 was there a

...