Growing passions cultivated at fair

PALMER — A friendly rivalry between world-record giant vegetable growers may see the Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off eclipse all other events at the 2012 Alaska State Fair.

If the first-day produce entries are any indication, Palmer greenhouse owner Scott Robb may finally be ready to challenge world-record giant cabbage grower Steve Hubacek. Robb brought in a massive 89-pounder on Wednesday, but the original plant had a lot of outside leaves and smaller heads attached that would’ve challenged Hubacek’s 2009 127-pound record, said Mardie Robb, who runs Colony Greenhouse with her husband.

“That there is just the head,” she said. “To have that much weight just there is incredible. It’s huge, but with the leaves and everything it would’ve been well over 100 pounds easy with the frame it had. It would’ve been pushing Steve’s record.”

If that’s what Scott Robb brought in for the fair’s first day, what will he have for the Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off come Aug. 31?

“He’ll challenge Steve’s record, I’m serious,” Mardie said. “Scott is really excited. His biggest (so far) was 103 pounds last year.”

As for what Hubacek may bring to the party, the Robbs will just have to wait. The Wasilla dentist had planned to bring over a test cabbage on Wednesday afternoon, but the head split before he could get it out of the ground.

While Hubacek is a cabbage specialist, Robb is also hoping to defend his place in the record books at this year’s fair with another giant vegetable.

Judging by the 59-pound rutabaga Robb brought in Wednesday, he’s hopeful to reclaim his world record for that crop, Mardie said. Robb had held the world record with an 82.9-pound rutabaga until last September, when Ian Neale of England grew an 85-pounder.

“Scott had the world record and it was broken last year,” Mardie said. “He and this man have gone back and forth for years, so this was another challenge he had to rise to.”

While 59 pounds is large, Mardie said her husband has a gargantuan rutabaga still in the ground.

“He only has to go to 87 pounds and the one at home already measures bigger around than his previous world record,” she said. “It looks really good as a possibility.”

If Robb were to come home with a prize for his giant cabbage, he shouldn’t expect his wife to do anything with it.

“I hate cabbage,” she said. “I don’t cook cabbage, I don’t like it at all.”

Kids excited for fair

While serious growers like Robb were busy hauling some of their giants and other entries to the fair on Wednesday, Valley children also were carting in the results of their summer labor.

Four-year-old Elsa Rodriguez and 9-year-old brother Eli labored with a couple of boxes of produce to enter, including Swiss chard, kohlrabi, artichokes, peas, potatoes, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and summer squash.

Their 25-pound cabbage is featured prominently in the corner of a garden display put up by Machetanz Elementary School showcasing vegetables and plants from the school’s garden.

While the kids enjoy gardening and growing things, getting them to eat their vegetables can be trickier, said mom Sarah Rodriguez.

“Well, they’ll eat some of it,” she said. “The peas they’ll eat, the potatoes they’ll eat, and the cabbage.”

Elsa said she likes the peas best, but thinks a deep purple flowering kale is the prettiest.

Eli said he was impressed after seeing Robb’s 89-pound cabbage.

“Yeah, that one’s pretty big, it’s 89 pounds and ours is only 25,” he said, adding his theory for why Robb’s was huge. “They probably got a lot of earthworms and earthworm poop. … We need to put more.”

Aside from teaching children lessons about where their food comes from, Sarah said she also believes gardening teaches other valuable skills and values.

“I think it teaches them a lot. It teaches them responsibility, following through with things,” she said. “Last night they brought chickens over and entered their poultry for the first time. It makes them have some thing that depends on them to take care of.”

The kids’ entries — a 4-month-old rooster named Hotwings and hen named Lucy — taught “that you have to feed them every day,” Eli said. “If you don’t, they run out of food and they die.”

Why name his rooster Hotwings?

“Because he’s cool,” Eli said. Also, “if he gets nasty, he ends up as dinner.”

Contact reporter Greg Jonson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.