Cokeburg gardener wins big at Washington County Fair with massive vegetables

CHARTIERS TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- Even a backyard gardener takes great pride in their crops, and one man from Washington County has some veggies that are so large you have to see them to believe it.

At the Washington County Fair, you can see all kinds of different vegetables, with many of them winning awards, but Justin Lint's vegetables stand out from most of the others.

Sitting on a low platform in one of the fair's buildings, they're impossible to miss.

A pantheon of positively prodigious produce featuring goliath gourds, onions the size of bowling pins, and an eggplant of biblical proportions, they all come from one man's garden.

Justin Lint and his wife Michelle have been growing gargantuan vegetables for the last few years.

Inspired by his grandfather, Justin started experimenting with mega vegetables and he says his secret is that it's all in the soil.

"I use natural soil, but I'm always amending it with green manure and cover crops in the winter," Lint said.

However he does it, it appears to work.

"I take a vegetable a year and try to perfect it and keep getting bigger and bigger," Lint said.

Justin says he's got an eggplant at home that he thinks will set a world record, even.

With plenty of deer and wildlife that occasionally dine on gardens, Justin says he uses rubber snakes to help keep mice out of his garden.

This year, Justin won 14 out of 15 categories for largest vegetable at the fair, with garlic being the lone category where he didn't claim victory.

Lint hopes that more young people will get into gardening and yes, they say the giant vegetables taste great.