Ray Todd was late getting his pumpkin seeds into the ground this season, but the vegies must have reached the finish line at just the right time for the Royal Bathurst Show.

Mr Todd, who grows his vegies on White Rock Road south of Bathurst, came home from the show with the champion pumpkin title, along with first and second prize for jarradale pumpkins and third prize for the biggest pumpkin.

“I put them in about a fortnight before Christmas,” he said. “They were late this year.

“I mostly get them in a couple of days before the Melbourne Cup, but they were late this year due to the dry weather.”

The biggest of his pumpkins, which he had weighed at Country Fruit in George Street, was an impressive 14 kilograms.

Mr Todd wasn’t willing to give too much away about his planting method.

”I just put them in the ground, water them and hope they grow,” he said.

But he was happy to reveal to the Western Advocate last year, when he was successful at the 2017 show, that barbecuing was his preferred method to cook pumpkins.

“I slice them about one centimetre thick and then I cook it on the barbecue,” he said.

“That’s the best way.”