An Atlantic record was set at the Giant Pumpkin Provincial Festival in Neguac, N.B., over the weekend.

Ben Hebb, of Bridgewater, N.S., entered the winning behemoth. His pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 594 kilograms, beating the previous record by 26 kilograms.

The second-place finisher was Elizabeth Steeves, of Irishtown, N.B., whose pumpkin tipped the scales at 454 kilograms.

Steeves said her first goal had been to grow a pumpkin that weighed at least 450 kilograms, and her second-place finish in the contest was a bonus.

"There were at least four or five there that were all close to the same weight, so I was just hoping mine would get to be over 1,000 pounds. If I’d come in fourth or fifth, I would have been happy with that, too,” Steeves said.

"My pumpkin, when they weighed it, was 1,001 [pounds]. I was happy with that. I was so very pleased."

Steeves's gigantic gourd just nudged out third-place finisher Edmond Hemphill of Mount Pleasant, N.S., who had a 450-kilogram pumpkin.

Her husband, David, won the prize for prettiest pumpkin.

Steeves won the biggest pumpkin contest at the Neguac competition in 2001 and 2003.

She now plans to enter her giant pumpkin in the contest in the Windsor-West Hants Pumpkin Festival in Nova Scotia, in October.

That contest was made famous by the late Howard Dill, known locally as the "Pumpkin king." He helped develop the seeds to grow giant pumpkins and was a four-time world champion grower.