Plymouth third-grader named state champion for large cabbage

PLYMOUTH — The National Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program has announced that the New Hampshire Agriculture Department has named Mason Hall as state champion for the huge cabbage he grew.

He will receive a $1,000 scholarship toward education from Bonnie Plants.

More than 1 million third-graders in the 48 contiguous states received hands-on gardening experience this year, growing colossal cabbages in hope of winning “best in state.”

Each year Bonnie Plants, the largest producer of vegetable and herb plants in North America, with more than 70 greenhouse facilities across the country, trucks free O.S. Cross — or “oversized” cabbage plants — to third-grade classrooms whose teachers have signed up for the program online at www.bonnieplants.com. Students can cultivate, nurture and grow giant cabbages, some much bigger than a basketball, often tipping the scales at more than 40 pounds.

Bonnie Plants initiated the Third-Grade Cabbage Program in 1996, around its headquarters in Union Springs, Alabama, with a mission of inspiring a love of vegetable gardening in young people and “growing” the next generation of gardeners. By 2002, the Cabbage Program became a national endeavor.

The program awards a $1,000 scholarship to one student in each participating state. At the end of the season, teachers from each third-grade class select the student who has grown the “best” cabbage, based on size and appearance. A digital image of the cabbage and student is submitted online at www.bonnieplants.com. That student's name is then entered in a statewide drawing. State winners are randomly selected by the office of the Commission of Agriculture in each of 48 participating states.

“The Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program is a wonderful way to engage children’s interest in agriculture, while teaching them not only the basics of gardening, but the importance of our food systems and growing our own,” said Bonnie Plants Chief Executive Officer Stan Cope. “Over the course of the past 15 years, the Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program has proved to be an exciting, successful and worthwhile experience that children, teachers, parents, and grandparents across the country have embraced.”