Cabbage kings aim to set new record

PALMER — If the Wednesday night Farm Exhibit weigh-in for cabbages is any indicator, this may be the year an Alaskan turns in another world record cabbage.

Mardie Robb said this summer’s warm May followed by cooler, wetter weather in the following months was good for some crops and tough on others.

The Robb family owns and operates the Colony Greenhouse in Palmer. Scott Robb holds the current cabbage record, set in 2012 at 138.25 pounds.

His wife, a familiar face in the Great Pumpkin Weigh-Off, said she was forced to sit this year out after the five pumpkin blooms she pollinated all aborted which meant she was out of the running for this year’s pumpkin weigh-off.

She was in the working in Farm Exhibits Wednesday helping other folks enter their veggies in the fair. Robb said serious contenders, like her husband and his cabbage cohort Steve Hubacek, save their monster veggies for the second weigh-in.

To get things started, Scott Robb brought in a 102.4-pound cabbage, and on display next to it in the Farm Exhibits building is an 89-pound Hubacek cabbage.

“They’ll leave it grow for another week to try to add weight,” Mardie Robb said of their strategies.

She said her husband has four or five other super-sized slaw makers. He’s still trying to decide which one to harvest for the Giant Cabbage Weigh-off Aug. 29.

Hubacek held the world record for several years until Robb headed it away in 2013.

“They talk back and forth on the phone almost every day,” she said. “It’s really fun to listen to them. They are great competitors.”

Hardcore cabbage heads will recall that Hubacek took the summer off in 2013. He’s back this year and Mardie Robb said both men are gunning to re-set the record. She said their goal is to set the bar high, well out of reach for all but the most determined growers.

Last year Robb lost the contest — good naturedly — to then 10-year-old Keevan Dinkel, part of that cabbage dynasty family. The kid king of cabbage bested the world record holder by two tenths of a pound to win 2013 bragging rights with a 92.3-pound cabbage he named Bob.

“If there is a Dinkel in the ring, they are going to be tough competitors,” Mardie Robb said.

Another grower to watch is Brian Shunskis of Salcha who was third last year and will be back in the ring at 7 p.m., Aug. 29 for the 2014 Giant Cabbage Weigh-off at the Farm Exhibits building.

The fair continues through Sept. 1.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.