GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Eight minutes. Eighteen-plus pounds of Michigan's freshest blueberries.
On Saturday, Patrick Bertoletti, fresh off a first place finish at Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, set a world record in Major League Eating, scarfing down 18.475 pounds of blueberries at the Great American Blueberry Challenge.
The first-ever competition pitted eight eaters against each other in Grand Rapids' sunny Belknap Park as top-ranked pickleball players faced off on nearby courts as part of the Beer City Open. Blueberries, Major League Pickleball says, are its official fruit.
Watch Patrick Bertoletti set a blueberry eating world record:
"Today was a good day," Bertoletti told FOX 17. "I was trying to eat fast and clean. I tried to get as close to the blueberries as possible to save momentum and energy."
In second place, Geoffrey Esper (ranked second in Major League Eating) ate 16.044 pounds of berries and James Web (ranked third) took third place with 15.319 pounds consumed in eight minutes.
"I had the bowl beneath my chin in case I did drop any," Esper said after the competition. "Thinking about it now, I think it was probably quicker to scoop them with two hands."
Hosted by the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC), the Great American Blueberry Challenge boasted an $8,000 purse with half of its contents awarded to first place.
"My stomach can hold a lot," Bertoletti said. "I wasn't worried about that. It was more how to eat them the fastest."
Standing beside empty, blueberry-stained bowls as full-stomached contestants walked (and burped) around Belknap Park, perhaps Esper put it best: "The movie: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. The blueberry scene? It's real."
