Thursday, August 14, 2008

Lauren and the Giant Cabbage

I got to see my nieces giant cabbage garden last night, and I must say she has outdone herself this year! Those cabbages are not only HUGE but they’re beautiful, too.

She starts out the season with probably 10 to 12 cabbages, and as the season goes on, she weeds out the smaller, weaker ones to where by the last month or so, she only works with the top 4.

She has quite the elaborate contraption built for her cabbages. All sorts of pipes, tubes, tarps, and whatnot are set up to help her grow the best cabbage ever. She doesn’t share her secrets either: apparently, this is a very competitive sport, and any advantage gained is very zealously guarded.

A decoy cabbage is growing out in the front of the house, to distract from the “real” work going on in the back. They actually get tourists stopping by all summer long to take photos and stare in amazement at it.

One year, her garden was vandalized – can you believe that? Some jerk out there would actually sneak in to somebody’s yard and literally chop up the competition. It was heartbreaking, and even made the front page of the local newspaper. Lauren works really hard at this, and to think that somebody would do that to her is just sickening.

Thankfully, that has never happened again (hopefully the perpetrator has died of shame), so each year my niece gets to enter the fair and participate in The Great Cabbage Weigh-Off.

I encourage everybody to go to the Alaska State Fair on Friday, August 29 at 6:00 to witness her big day.

In her own words: “I think this is going to be my year!”

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