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Monster Hoosier cabbage grabs 3rd-grader $1,000

By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

NEW CASTLE, Ind. — A thousand dollars is a lot of cabbage for a fourth-grader – maybe almost as much as Jon Keesling and his family harvested off a 30-pound cabbage head from their garden last summer.

Keesling, 10, was Indiana’s winner in the annual Bonnie Plants 3rd Grade Cabbage Program for 2008. As a third-grader last April, he was one of many Parker Elementary School students in New Castle who took home a free cabbage seedling from Bonnie Plants, instructions and hopes for the grand prize: A $1,000 savings bond scholarship to use toward college.

His parents, Tim and Lora Keesling, left a four-foot-wide space in their new garden for the tiny transplant – only about four inches tall – figuring it was a generous allowance, since Bonnie’s instructions recommended three feet for the oversized O.S. Cross variety.
When harvested in mid-July, Lora said the cabbage’s leaves spanned a diameter of five feet, spilling out over regular-sized cabbage plants.

“I knew it was going to get at least a pretty good size,” said Jon, who this spring has earned his own garden in the family’s “smallish big backyard,” in which he is planting onions, cantaloupes and – perhaps not surprisingly – more O.S. Cross cabbage.

Harvesting the monster required Tim to get on his hands and knees and saw through the base with a butcher knife. The Keeslings discovered the single plant had also spawned a softball-size and two regular-size cabbage heads beneath the main 30-pound head. They had to figure its weight by having Tim hold it on a scale, then subtracting his weight from the total.

In addition to taking photos of the finished product and its progress over three months, Jon had to keep a log of how often he watered the plant (twice a day), the fertilizer he used (a little horse manure each day, for which the supplying neighbor was paid in cabbage) and how he dealt with bugs and other pests.

The Keeslings weren’t farmers or even avid green thumbs, though they are becoming such. “Actually, I just learned on my own,” Jon said of gardening, adding, “well … with a little help from my dad.”
Last fall, those new fourth-graders who had completed the summer project brought their photos and other documentation to third-grade teacher Dillera Reece – “We didn’t want all of those cabbages back at school,” she pointed out – who had grown her own 24-pound cabbage at home.

Of the dozen or so students with finished projects, many had “pretty good-sized” plants, but Jon’s was the largest. Reece explained that doesn’t automatically make a school winner, since log-keeping and the cabbage’s appearance also matter – but she noted Jon’s records were detailed and his family took many photos of the cabbage next to various objects to accurately document its size.

Last year was the first time Parker Elementary had participated in the nine-year-old Bonnie Plants program. Reece said all school winners from a state are forwarded to the company, which selects one in the entire state for its $1,000 bond and a large plaque. Jon received both at a special school assembly last month, while this year’s third-graders watched and dreamed – including his younger brother, Danny.

“He so wants to win this contest,” Reece said of Danny, explaining this year’s competition will use regular-sized cabbage seeds because there aren’t enough of the O.S. Cross to give all participating children.

“Little Brother’s determined,” Lora agreed. “(He thinks) ‘If Jon can win, I can too.’”

This is just part of what Reece – a 22-year Parker instructor – said she does to make her students more aware of their natural surroundings. They maintain an outdoor garden lab at school, growing flowers and vegetables, squash and basically anything that doesn’t have to be harvested over summer break. They also have a small pond with frogs in various stages of development, to learn about aquatic life.

“I just can’t tell you; their little faces-” Reece said, describing the children’s reaction to watching tadpoles grow. “One little guy just squealed when he’d see them.”

Even in a small town like New Castle, surrounded by farms, there are kids who don’t know the ultimate sources of their food. She tries to find out about nature-themed competitions and programs in which they can participate, such as Bonnie Plants and also an “urban birds” contest through Walmart.

“There’s a lot we could do just right here in New Castle, to make kids more aware,” Reece said, adding she sees growing food as a once-dying art that could be making a comeback thanks to the down economy.

But the real question on readers’ minds may be: How does one go about eating a cabbage that weighs as much as a big basket of laundry?

“I had to share mine with four other families, it was so large,” Reece said.

Lora quartered Jon’s cabbage – “And that took a while,” she dryly observed – and used one-fourth to make coleslaw for a family reunion, gave half to Jon’s grandmothers and froze the other quarter for a month or so … before making more coleslaw.

One should really enjoy eating the stuff to make the effort of growing a 30-pound cabbage worthwhile, and Jon plans to try for another this summer, in addition to helping Danny with his cabbage plant. Does Jon actually like coleslaw?

“Yes,” the fourth-grader cheerfully answered. “Really well.”

4/22/2009