Weigh-off draws international crowd

PALMER – No world weight records were broken at the Alaska State Fair’s Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off this year, but the event may have had record-breaking attendance.

Virtually, that is.

Event emcee Brian Mead informed the audience during the festivities Friday evening that some Australian spectators were making contact, worried about the live feed cutting out.

Dean Phipps, the fair’s Marketing Director, said that they upgraded their wireless Internet to have a 10-megabyte upload speed just for the event. With the help of Mead’s Colony High media students, they also installed a hardwire backup through the Farm Exhibits building where the weigh-off was held, more than 300 feet of which was added Friday morning, Phipps said.

“We didn’t decide to do it until two days before,” Phipps said. The fair was unsure of the necessity for the upgraded Internet.

Apparently, there was a need.

Phipps confirmed that media people from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Food Network, HGTV, and Alaska Dispatch News — of course – were all in attendance, and rumor had it the “Japanese equivalent of BBC,” NHK, was to be represented, though no one spotted them during the event.

There was, however, a green tutu-clad cabbage fairy named “kyabetsu” – the Japanese word for cabbage – in honor of Palmer’s sister city, Saroma, Japan.

When the competition finally got rolling Friday evening, 22 contestants were ready to stick their necks — or rather, heads of cabbage — out there. Two of the original 24 had to pull out, competition officianados said, because one got “chickened” and the other got “moosed.”

The cabbages that fairgoers and internet voyeurs were able to see ranged from ten pounds — young Stuart McQuillin’s “Nelson” — to almost 118 pounds — 2009 record holder Steve Hubacek’s “Marmaduke,” so named for the big cartoon dog.

Hubacek said he didn’t expect to win this year, but after a gap year he had to come back.

After all, Scott Robb broke the deal they made before the competition last year.

“I told (him) he better break a hundred pounds or I’m coming back,” Hubacek said.

Though Robb set the world record for giant cabbages in 2012 at over 138 pounds, he lost to 10-year-old Keevan Dinkel last year when his cabbage weighed in at just 92.1 pounds.

But, as always, Robb was a good sport.

“It’s all good,” he said after taking second in the 19th annual weigh-off this year with his 113.7-pound cabbage, “Gorgeous George.”

“I’m never going to dominate the competition, there are too many good growers,” he added. “I had a really good year.”

Robb said he had ten cabbages on his three-and-a-half-acre property that were in the running for the competition, three of which he weighed at the fair. Six of them were over a hundred pounds, and the one he chose was the heaviest of the three weighed at the fair.

“I’ve never had this kind of consistency before, so that must tell me I’m onto something,” Robb said.

A world record is nothing to stick one’s nose up at, either.

“If any man deserves the world record, it’s him,” Hubacek said, of Robb. “I don’t take it to the same level.”

Hubacek’s heaviest cabbage on record is 127 pounds, the beefiest in the world before Robb’s 2012 monster.

Salcha resident Brian Shunskis took third in the competition on Friday for the fourth year in a row with a 75.8-pound cabbage – almost 20 pounds lighter than his record 94.4-pounder. Shunskis said it was about 84 pounds when he weighed it that morning, but it lost a whole lot of water weight during the day.

“I should’ve brought one with a head,” Shunskis said, regretting the amount of water an extra-leafy cabbage holds. “It would’ve held out better.

According to Mead, cabbages can lose a few pounds in an hour, “losing weight by the second.” Shunskis also said that Robb’s cabbage lost three pounds in less than those 60 minutes.

For Shunskis, part of it was just the unfortunate northern summer.

“This is the worst summer I’ve ever seen in 35 years, or at least the rainiest,” Shunskis said.

For a plant that requires a lot of sunlight — if it’s going to grow to record proportions, like the seven-foot-three-inch beast Robb grew in 2012 — rainy days are pretty much a death sentence.

Shunskis said he was just happy to be in the running because he “likes growing stuff,” and the 500-dollar-prize he’s received every year is a pretty good bonus.

“I thought the cabbages did pretty good, considering the conditions,” he said.

But that’s not to say he’s not ambitious.

“One of these days I’ll get these guys,” he said of Robb and Hubacek.

Frontiersman readers would do well to remember the big names with the smaller cabbages too, however.

Former Alaska Attorney General and current Director of Mat-Su College Talis Colberg has been growing cabbage for 16 years, entering them in the fair for 13. His largest cabbage only made it to 57 pounds, but he’s still got some competition.

Hank Guinotte had some things to say on-stage, prior to the reveal of his cabbage’s weight.

“How big do you think your cabbage is?” Mead asked.

“Bigger than Talis’s,” Guinotte replied.

“Is that all that matters?” Mead asked.

“Yes,” Guinotte said.

Colberg’s 25.75-pound “The Champion” did get beat by Guinotte’s “Cinderella,” weighing in at 43.55 pounds, but Colberg – a regular – said he will definitely be back.

Maybe Colberg was on the right track with the naming process though.

“Scott Robb is officially a cabbage,” Mead said after young competitor Anna Van Diest came to the stage with her celebrity-named cabbage on the scale.

Van Diest just missed tenth place with a 30.25-pounder, but said she was happy with the resultant weight.

So now that Alaska’s Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off has become a spectator sport around the world and in every age group, perhaps an international honor society should be developed. Phi Beta Cabbage, anyone?

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.

Alaska State Fair Cabbage Weigh-off Results

Open Division:

1. Steve Hubacek, 117.95 lbs.; 2. Scott Robb, 113.7; 3. Brian Shunskis, 75.8; 4. Keevan Dinkel, 68.9; 5. Marjorie Mueller, 53.2; 6. C. Kenley, 46.3; 7. Hank Guinotte, 43.55; 8. Walter Chastain, 35.5; 9. Dale Marshall, 32.35; 10. Tom Starr, 31.6; 11. Anna Van Diest, 30.25; 12. The Meyer Family, 28.2; 13. Talis Colberg, 25.75; 14. Eva Cohnen-Brown, 24.55; 15. Carrie McQuillin, 22; 16. Jesse Jensen, 13.5; 17. Sheila, 13.05, unconfirmed; 18. Stuart McQuillin, 10.

Juniors

1. Garrett, 68.3 pounds; 2. Andy and Daisy Christensen, 38.65; 3. Joe Van Diest, 30.38; 4. Payton, 12.75.