Discovering NC Agriculture is a year-long series focusing on twelve N.C. grown, raised, caught, and made commodities. Tune in each month to see how an N.C. commodity is grown, harvested, packed for consumer use and more. Learn nutritional value, find fun recipes to try, hear from local chefs who use that product, and other unique commodity facts throughout the series. We look forward to helping you better understand some of our N.C. commodities and how they impact your everyday lives!
Nothing is more exciting than seeing giant vegetables grown in North Carolina! From the giant pumpkins and watermelons at the N.C. State Fair to the giant cabbages grown by third grade students in the Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program, we love to see farmers, students and North Carolinians alike taking agriculture to the next level.
In 1996, Bonnie Plants established the 3rd Grade Cabbage Program with the mission to inspire a love of gardening in young people and teach kids where their food comes from. As a high-quality grower of vegetable and herb plants, Bonnie Plants certainly knows how to grow the best! In just six years, the 3rd Grade Cabbage Program grew from a small-town program in Alabama to a national project.
So how does it work? Teachers across the United States can sign up for the program on the Bonnie Plants website. Each year, the company sends more than one million oversized cabbage plants to participating classrooms for kids to use. If nurtured properly, these plants can grow a 40lb cabbage or more! At the end of the growing season, each teacher will select one student from their class who has grown the “best” cabbage based on size and appearance. A digital image of that student with their cabbage is then submitted online for the random statewide drawing. Bonnie Plants selects one student from each state to win a $1,000 prize!
When Bonnie Plants originally started in 1918, cabbage was their flagship product, giving it a special place in Bonnie’s heart. Since then, the company has expanded their product offerings to include onions, strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. The cabbage plants used for the 3rd Grade Cabbage Program are the “oversized-cross” variety, which is widely known for producing giant heads of cabbage. To date, the largest cabbage grown in the program weighed 75 pounds!
Learn more about Bonnie Plants on their website and social media channels. Be sure to follow along each year to see the giant cabbages grown by students across our state and beyond. We are so proud of the agricultural education that Bonnie Plants is giving the next generation!
