An Australian farm has smashed the record for the world's largest blueberry with a fruit the size of a ping-pong ball.
Picked in November and stashed in a freezer since, the monster was almost 4cm wide and weighed in at 20.4g – about 10 times the average blueberry. The title was previously held by a 16.2g berry grown in Western Australia.
The specimen is of a new variety developed by the Costa Group, to meet consumer demands for larger berries. Brad Hocking says the Eterna breed consistently yields huge fruit, but recent growing conditions had spurned a bumper crop at their farm in Corindi in northern New South Wales.
His team had noticed some promising berries on the trees but were shocked and “stoked” when they were weighed.
“It wasn't really until we put them on the scale that we realised what we found,” the lead horticulturalist told the BBC.
“The record-breaking fruit was obviously particularly large, but we would have picked 20 or more fruit on that morning that would have broken the previous world record.” After 12 weeks, the berry was this week certified by Guinness World Records as the heaviest ever documented.
So what does a world-record breaking blueberry taste like? Mr Hocking laughs and says he doesn't know – while tempting, his team decided to save the berry from an immediate end, and instead ate its compatriots.
“We get second breakfast every day… we don't have to eat this one,” he said. And now the growers are considering what to do with it.
“There's been a few ideas, maybe like a resin cast and mounting it on the wall or something.” But in general, the Eterna berries – while larger – don't compromise on flavour, he promises.
“It's a different experience, eating a berry that is that large.
“We see it more as people who are consuming them as snacks, more than maybe the traditional uses in breakfasts and baking. But certainly, the flavour and the firmness is there – it's got a really nice crunch to it and a high level of blueberry aromatics.”
— CutC by bbc.com
