Israeli farmer grows world’s largest strawberry, weighing more than an iPhone

In Kadima-Zoran, Israel, Chahi Ariel spent much of last year ensuring a strawberry plucked from his family’s farm remained frozen. The (likely) freezer-burned fruit in question, a local variety called Ilan, wasn’t noteworthy for its taste like the much-hyped Oishii Omakase berry. Rather, Ariel and his family were waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm the fruit’s status as the world’s largest strawberry, an announcement that officially dropped this past week, reports the Associated Press. At 10 ounces and measuring 7 inches in length, the palm-sized behemoth weighed more than an average cell phone and could almost certainly flatten a hamster. It edges out the previous record holder, a Japanese strawberry grown in 2015, by a single ounce. A scientist who bred the Ilan variety, which is known for producing large fruits, told Guinness that the Ariel family’s strawberry was the result of a cold weather that actually caused multiple berries to grow and fuse together, forming this red giant. Unfortunately, for those curious about how the berry tasted, the Ariel family did not confirm whether in this case bigger proved to be better. —Matthew Sedacca