Giada De Laurentiis' Dog-Sized Squash Had Instagram Amazed

Some of the perks of growing your own food include saving money, having produce readily available to you, and of course adding a whole new level of freshness to your homemade recipes. It's also enlightening to see fruits and vegetables in all their natural growth stages, rather than the manicured final versions deemed acceptable by supermarkets. Those with budding green thumbs may find inspiration in one celebrity chef with a particularly abundant and aesthetically pleasing home garden, and that is Giada De Laurentiis.

When the Italy-born Food Network star isn't sharing recipes on television or publishing her kitchen tips in cookbooks, she's often posting about her life and family on social media. One of her favorite Instagram topics is her lush selection of produce, which she grows in the back of her $4.86 million midcentury bungalow in Los Angeles (via Architectural Digest). Last fall, De Laurentiis' garden update had fans applauding her overflowing beds of fennel, peas, and squash blossoms, which she said she would use in a light risotto for dinner. The chef also thanked a TikToker for a lemony recipe, as it allowed her to take advantage of her fruit trees. This week, De Laurentiis shared another garden update, and the size of her fresh squash is blowing followers' minds.

De Laurentiis recently posted a photo on her Instagram story of one of the biggest squashes we have ever seen, and the internet agrees. "Squash from my garden!!" she captioned a picture of herself, triumphantly holding a bountiful zucchini bigger than her torso. The celebrity chef went on to post another photo of the squash to make sure we understood just how big the vegetable was. This time, she compared it to the size of her dog Ollie, who was just about the same size, if not smaller, than the squash from her garden. Though it's not the biggest squash ever grown, since that's a whopping 8 feet and 3 inches, according to Guinness World Records, it's pretty big by most shoppers' standards.

The "Everyday Italian" star didn't share what she planned to do with the giant squash, but her website is full of hints. Her spaghetti with zucchini transforms summer squash into a lemony pasta sauce with salted ricotta, while her squash boats with rice make an impressive vegan main course. Considering the sheer size of the squash, it's likely the De Laurentiis crew will be eating the vegetable all week. Maybe Ollie will even get a taste.