John Evans of Palmer, Alaska, USA, grew a carrot weighing 8.61 kg (18 lb 13 oz) when measured at the 1998 Alaska State Fair.

He started growing the record breaking carrot in February 1998 and transferred it to his garden in May of the same year.  John thought he may have damaged it in the transfer and didn’t do much to it for the next few months.  However one day he decided to check how it was doing and started scratching at the soil on the surface.  After a few minutes he was staring at the top of the carrot which measured an unbelievable 11.75in 29.8cm in diameter!  After digging carefully for an hour he was finally able to lift the carrot out and weigh it on his bathroom scales.  When he presented it at the Alaska State Fair in 1998 he knew he had beaten the record.  This year John hopes to break his own record with a carrot that was a seed from the original record breaking carrot.  So far it has 100 leaves and is still growing!