Local kid wins $1,000 scholarship for growing giant award-winning cabbage

MENAN — A nine-year-old boy is taking home the ‘green’ after winning a $1,000 scholarship for growing a giant cabbage.

Peter Cammans attends Roberts Elementary and participated in a statewide competition while he was in third grade. He was recently selected as Idaho’s winner for “Best in State” in the Bonnie Plants 3rd Grade Cabbage program. He was able to grow a five-pound cabbage.

“I was very excited, very excited (to win)!” Peter told EastIdahoNews.com` Tuesday.

He said he came home from school one day with a sprout.

“They (teachers) gave me it and said, ‘The person who wins, gets the $1,000 scholarship’ and I was like, ‘Okay!’ So I brought it home and planted it in the ground (in our backyard) and then it started growing a lot. It wilted a little bit but it was very slow at first but then it grew very, very fast,” Peter said.

Megan Cammans, Peter’s mother said she didn’t know too much about the scholarship when Peter came home and told her about it. She isn’t a gardener either so she wasn’t sure how everything would turn out in the end.

“He’s determined but we didn’t really know what we were doing. We just watered it and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Megan said. “When it was growing, I was like, ‘This is huge, maybe he’ll win.’ Then I looked at past winners and I was like, ‘Well, it’s comparable but it’s a statewide thing’ and I thought, there’s farmers and gardeners out there and we are not.”

To Megan and Peter’s surprise, he won.

“It was crazy! I did not expect that, I did not. How I grew this (cabbage) was put a little bit of plant feed on it and I let the sprinklers do the rest,” Peter said.

According to a press release sent by Bonnie Plants based in Union Springs, Alabama, nearly 200,000 third graders in 48 states grew colossal cabbages. One student in each state was awarded a $1,000 scholarship towards education from Bonnie Plants. Their website says they are the largest grower of vegetable and herb plants in the U.S.

Bonnie Plants launched the 3rd Grade Cabbage program in 1996, choosing cabbages because they were the first profitable crop the company sold.

“We’re thrilled to once again see so many students were able to participate and learn the basics of gardening as well as life lessons like responsibility, self-confidence and accomplishment,” said Mike Sutterer, President and CEO of Bonnie Plants.

Students took a photo with their cabbage when it was fully grown and submitted it for a chance to win the scholarship. According to the press release, winners were selected by Bonnie Plants in collaboration with state departments of agriculture based on the student’s enthusiasm to participate and learn in addition to the size and overall appearance of their cabbage.

Peter and Megan said they ate the cabbage with their family of three and invited neighbors over to join them since there was so much of it.

“We made three different cabbage dishes. I don’t cook cabbage. It’s such a random vegetable,’ said Megan. “We will probably plant more things. It must be a good spot to grow things so we are going to try next year, maybe potatoes.”

Peter told EastIdahoNews.com the cabbage was pretty tasty. One of the dishes his mom made was Ethiopian. He said he would eat cabbage again.

Click here to learn more about the Bonnie Plants 3rd Grade Cabbage Program.