Man wins the Guinness World Records for growing the tallest tomatillo plant
John Pegram won the Guinness Book of World Records after his plant grew to be 9 feet 10 inches tall.
By Adrianna Hargrove and Olivia Ugino
NBC 12
August 31, 2020
Excerpt:
After waiting a year and a half, Pegram is now finally a Guinness World Record holder for the tallest tomatillo plant, growing in a unique way.
“I’m using the weeds to help me grow,” Pegram says.
A lesson that stemmed from life.
“I was not a good person…this person used to sell drugs,” he said. ”You see my car over there? My car is on bricks. You know how easy it would’ve been when I waited a year for this Guinness World Record? I kept believing in my dream, you know how easy it would’ve been for me to sell drugs and get that quick money? But I didn’t, I stuck it out.”
And now, he’s hoping others do the same.
“I want to make Black farming popular again,” he said. “My daddy was a sharecropper, my granddaddy was a sharecropper. So instead of complaining about slavery, I just took lemons and made lemonade…a lot of Black people don’t want to farm right now and it’s because of slavery, and I want them to look at me and say, ’OK, farming is cool again. Farming is something we need to do. We need to take care of ourselves.’”
