Clyde's kumara record gets a nudge

Marie Ireland and her almost-Northland-Age-record-breaking 4.474kg kumara. Photo / supplied

The good news for Kaitaia man Clyde Korach is that he still officially holds the Northland Age kumara record with a 4.5kg monster he produced in 2018. The bad news is that Marie Ireland, who gave the record a nudge last week, was only half way through harvesting her crop when she yanked a 4.474kg monster out of the ground.

Korach said he had only planted one tuber in 2018, and wasn't expecting the specimen it produced, the biggest he had ever grown in 60 years as a keen vegetable gardener.

Like him, Marie Ireland didn't have any particular secrets to share, or not, when she began harvesting the crop she had planted at her and parents Vern and Rosie Ireland's home north of Waiharara, but the signs were good from the start.

Amongst the first to be lifted was a 2.81kg specimen, closely followed by the 4.474kg whopper.

"And we're still digging. We're only half way through the crop," Rosie said last week.