KAILUA-KONA — Pamela Wang was out for a morning stroll Sunday when a world record dropped at her feet.
Or what appears to be a world record, at least.
Wang, who lives in Kealakekua near Konawaena High School, was on a brief walk to grab her paper when she stumbled across the largest avocado she’s ever seen — and, perhaps, the largest avocado anyone has ever seen.
“I see avocados every day and I pick up avocados every day, but this one … it was hard to miss,” she said. “It was as big as my head.”
The avocado was a Daily 11, a type known for its mammoth size. Yet, even among Daily 11s, the green fruit Wang scooped up Sunday loomed a monster, weighing in at 5 pounds, 3.68 ounces.
Interested in sharing her find with the community, Wang lugged the gargantuan avocado to the Pure Kona Green Market, a farmers market in South Kona, taking it from booth to booth and leaving it for display.
Wang’s friends began making inquiries online, finding information that indicated Wang’s find might just be the largest avocado on record.
Based on information the Guinness Book of World Records provided to West Hawaii Today in an email Thursday, Wang’s friends were wrong.
But by implementing a moderate rephrasing from “largest avocado” to “heaviest avocado,” it appears they might have been right.
Elizabeth Montoya, assistant public relations manager with Guinness World Records America Inc., wrote that the company doesn’t have a category for the largest avocado. It does, however, have one for the heaviest.
She said that in January 2009, Guinness verified an avocado submitted by Gabriel Ramirez Nahim of Caracas, Venezuela, that weighed in at 4 pounds, 13.2 ounces.
Wang’s avocado, if verified, dwarfs the more than 8-year-old world record.
She went online and received directions for the application and verification process, which requires a photo of the fruit and a weigh-in on a legitimate scale witnessed by an expert.
Ken Love, executive director of Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers and a farmer in South Kona, fit the bill. Wang called him and they met at ChoiceMART in Kealakekua to use the store’s scale.
“I’ve seen (avocados) longer and I’ve seen them fatter, but not both,” said Love, who verified the fruit’s weight. “I think people have other ones that they don’t weigh, but I think this one, it was way up there.”
Wang, too, said there likely have been heavier avocados in history.
Wang will get official word from Guinness within the next two months as to whether she’s the record-holder.
Love said Kona is home to three other current or former world record fruits. Farmers in the area claim records for the heaviest jackfruit and the heaviest soursop.
The tree from which the potential world-record avocado fell actually isn’t farmed by Wang. It isn’t even on her property. But the tree overhangs the street on which she walks, and avocados drop there all the time.
Anything overhanging or dropped outside of a private property line is free for anyone to claim.
Wang said she’s sure the tree from which the avocado came was a grafted tree that’s at least 40 years old.
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.
