Sandusky Student Grows Massive Cabbage, Wins Statewide Contest

Spending our days pounding the pavement of dear Cleveland, it may sometimes elude the typical resident that Ohio is mostly farmland. That fact certainly doesn't elude the 24,020 students who participated in this year's cabbage-growing contest, sponsored by Bonnie Plants.

Elle Whelan, a student at Osborne Elementary in Sandusky, snagged top honors this year with a 38-pound cabbage. Her success garnered her a $1,000 saving bond towards education and, of course, statewide agricultural acclaim.

“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," Stan Cope, president of Bonnie Plants, says.

More than 100 Cleveland-based students joined in on the cabbage fun, according to data supplied by Bonnie Plants. The participant spreadsheets most often touch on cities like Lima, Lancaster and Ashtabula, but there's no stopping a city-strapped student in Cleveland from letting their green thumb go wild and tend to the biggest cabbage this side of the Cuyahoga.