Hoot Owl Farms’ Pumpkin Palooza was meant to highlight its bountiful selection of gourds, but “Big Tony” may have stolen the show.

A stream of onlookers, some from as far away as Idaho, arrived at Hoot Owl Farms to stock up on pumpkins and many other vegetables and fruit last Thursday at the organic garden on Montana 37 north of Libby.

But toward the end of the event Hoot Owl co-owner Bonnie Geber joined Hans Orellano and members of his family to determine the exact weight of a monster zucchini, affectionately named “Big Tony.”

The massive piece of fruit was birthed from a large plant and later moved to allow it room to grow.

And grow it did.

Geber filmed the weigh-in for a Hoot Owl Facebook Live post and when Orellano laid the zucchini on the digital scale, it read 27 pounds. While the giant fruit was impressive to the untrained eye, it fell short of a world record status.

According to the Guinness World Records, the heaviest zucchini on record weighed 64 pounds, eight ounces and was grown by Bernard Lavery in 1990 in Llanharry, United Kingdom in the southeast part of the country, about 160 miles east of London.

Guinness records indicate the longest zucchini measured 8 feet, 3.3 inches on Aug. 28, 2014, and was grown by Giovanni Batista Scozzafava in Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada.

Orellano, in his fourth year working at Hoot Owl, said he is happy the team gave the fruit a chance to grow.

“It’s really impressive and we’re happy we moved it and gave it a chance to get bigger,” he said.

Orellano, the husband of Abigail Cress-Orellano, the pastor at Christ Lutheran Church, was joined by his wife, 4-year-old son Lazarus and his mom, Heidi Neumark who journeyed to Libby to see her family.

Lazarus posed for some photos with the monstrous zucchini to provide a bit of perspective.

Ethan Anderson won a $100 gift card for having the closest estimate of the zucchini’s weight.

While the harvest season dwindles, Hoot Owl is still open on Friday afternoons. For more information, see their Facebook page and web page at hootowlfarm.net. To contact them, call 406-318-5339.

    Libby resident Pamela Baltz selects a pumpkin at Hoot Owl Farms' Pumpkin Palooza event Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. Baltz said she was one of the first people to sign up with Hoot Owl when it opened in 2017. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
  

    Hoot Owl Farms employee Hans Orellano shows the reading of 27 pounds on a digital scale used to weigh a zucchini affectionately known as "Big Tony." The massive fruit was grown at the organic garden before it was cut and weighed during the Pumpkin Palooza event Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
  

    Hoot Owl Farms had an impressive array of pumpkins, gourds and other fruits and vegetables at the Pumpkin Palooza event Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)