by Tara Kimura, CBCNews.ca

The New York Daily News recently featured a profile of Apollonia Castitlione, a Queens gardener who grew a whopper of a zucchini measuring six feet long.

Castitlione, who has kept a garden for more than two decades, attributed the monster growth to a little fertilizer, water and good luck.

"I've had my vegetable garden for 26 years, but I never saw anything so spectacular," Castitlione told the U.S. daily.

The largest zucchini — spanning 7 feet, 10 inches — was grown in India in 2005, according to the paper.

After reading this article, I thought of the vegetable displays at my local fall fair, where enormous and sometimes misshapen veggies sit proudly behind glass display cases pinned with blue, red and gold ribbons.

This year's harvest, after a soggy summer, may not break any local records — if the non-prize winning crab apples on my tree are any indication of growth.

Still, it's a marvel to see these gargantuan veggies — proof of a vigilant gardener and a fruitful growing summer season now over.

Have you ever grown a prize-winning or extraordinarily large vegetable? Tell us how you grew your giant fruit or veggie.