The largest popcorn ball ever created now rests at the Great Indiana State Fair. Unveiled Saturday in the Ball State Agriculture/Horticulture Building, the edible oddity checked in at 6,510 lbs., topping the old record by 1,450 lbs.!
The official weight was captured by the Indiana State Police Motor Pool and already includes a margin of error of 196 lbs., which means the ball could actually weigh more than 6,700 lbs. Transportation officials used four industry standard roll-off scales to weigh the considerable confection, which has an 8-foot diameter and a 24' 9" circumference. A video of the unveiling can be seen at http://bit.ly/17qw40t.
"We learned a lot during this long process. It's fun to see the finished product and it's great to be a world record holder," State Fair Education Specialist Stephanie DeCamp said. "We couldn't have done it without our partners, Snax in Pax, Pop Weaver and Indiana's Family of Farmers."
Developed as a way to help celebrate the fair's Year of Popcorn theme, the popcorn ball took 75 people 329 hours to build. It began in June when workers at the Snax in Pax Popcorn Company in Topeka, Ind., began making and tamping the popcorn into a specially created wooden form. After reaching 2,700 lbs., the ball was then transported to the State Fairgrounds where State Fair staff, board members and volunteer groups packed on another 3,800 lbs. of hot, gooey popcorn.
In the end, the record-breaking ball required:
• 977 lbs. of popped popcorn
• 1,113 lbs. of mushroom shaped popcorn kernels
• 5,534 lbs. of a caramel-like syrup consisting of water, sugar and corn syrup (to hold it together)
The ball will remain on display through the end of the fair, Aug. 18. Indiana's Family of Farmers will then deconstruct the ball and use it as feed for livestock.
Information provided by the Indiana State Fair.
