The reputation of one Fort Valley peach farm just got a bit ‘bigger’ after one peach outgrew all the rest and may have set a new world record.
At 6-years-old, Al Pearson began working alongside peaches, carrying on the legacy of five generations of peach farmers.
“It’s in your blood. You get used to it and hopefully the risk and rewards,” said Pearson.
But what he’s didn’t expect to find in the batch was the world’s largest peach.
“It’s the biggest peach I’ve ever seen obviously,” said Pearson.
On Wednesday, a worker found the massive peach and separated it from the pack.
“It just had some genetics in it, that’s what happened,” said Pearson.
When you set the large peach next to an average-sized one, the big peach is about three times larger.
But how does a peach become that big?
"Very few left on the tree so all the energy from the tree went to very few peaches instead of a lot and so it ended up just making the biggest peach in the world," said Will McGehee with Pearson Farms.
The world record for ‘biggest peach ever’ is 1.75 lbs and Pearson’s peach weights nearly 1.8 lbs.
A county agent from UGA officially certified and recorded the weight and now Pearson is waiting to hear back from the Guinness Book of World Records.
In the meantime, the peach will be preserved in the freezer.
Since Guinness has officially recorded the peach's weight, Pearson plans to make it into a peach cobbler to share with his whole crew next week.