The Mat-Su Valley grower wasn’t confident going into the popular Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off his head was head and shoulders above the rest. With the eyes of onlookers widening as Robb’s green giant’s final weight was displayed on the digital read out, it was clear Robb had brought a winner.
Mike Campbell, the eight-year veteran official in charge of weighing the giant vegetables, shouted out Robb’s winning number: 79.1 pounds.
 ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman Steve Hubacek, the 2007 Giant Cabbage Weight-Off winner, examines a 79-pounder grown by Scott Robb, which won this year'€™s contest. Hubacek'€™s 2008 effort weighed in at 65.7 pounds. |
The contestants, all standing next to the vegetables they babied, beamed with pride despite fighting a dismal growing season.
“It was really a bad year,” said defending champion Steve Hubacek, who won last year’s contest with a cabbage weighing more than 87 pounds.
Hubacek said a cool, cloudy summer didn’t provide the optimal conditions typical of an Alaska summer. He also had problems with mice.
“My chances are not good,” Hubacek said before the competition began. “I was really set back with mice damage.”
Hubacek’s cabbage weighed in at 65.7 pounds and was good for second place.
Walking among the cabbages Friday, spectators peered at vegetables of all shapes and sizes. Some cabbages had leaves that seemed to burst out like water from a Las Vegas fountain. Others were more compact, looking like tightly packed heads of lettuce at the grocery store.
But it’s really not the leaves that make a champion cabbage, Robb said. The real weight is in the cabbage’s head, where the majority of its girth is found. That heft was on display in the fairgrounds arena, from 20-pound cabbages in the junior division to Robb’s 79-pound monster. The junior division was won by Elysha Menefee, whose 33.2-pound cabbage earned her $250.
One thing everyone had in common, however, was a cool summer that made growing their cabbages a larger challenge.
Campbell, the state weights and measures inspector, said it was clear this year’s cabbages were far smaller than years’ past. Even so, the playing field was level to make for a fair competition.
“Everyone’s under the same cloud,” he said.
Even the venerable Cabbage Fairies, the leafy green-clad ladies with magical wands, were talking about the growing season this year. All the fairies worked especially hard to bless each cabbage before it hit the scale. And at least one fairy had nothing but admiration for Alaska’s gargantuan vegetables.
“I think they’re very brave cabbages for making it through our weather,” Jane Desnoyers said.
But there could only be one first-place winner.
When the cheers died down and Robb’s cabbage was hefted from the scale onto a winner’s platform, the crowd surged forward with cameras at the ready. Locals and tourists jockeyed for position to photograph the cabbage that could make one humongous helping of sauerkraut.
Robb was still stunned with his win after the strobes died down.
“You just never know,” he said. “I’m surprised now.”
And while Robb’s cabbage won, it didn’t weigh nearly what he wanted. Not to worry, he said, cabbage lovers will definitely see him next year.
Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.
Comments
1 comment(s)rahgsu wrote on Sep 1, 2008 10:03 AM:
Who could resist? "