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Mezera, a fourth-grader at Prairie Catholic School in Prairie Du Chien, will be awarded a $1,000 college savings bond at 2 p.m. today after growing a 31-pound cabbage.
Last spring, Mezera’s third-grade teacher, Jennifer Wachuta, sent home Bonnie Plant cabbage plants for her students to grow over the summer. The Alabama plant company’s program, Wachuta said, aims to promote gardening as fun and rewarding.
“It was really kind of neat that Douglas won because his parents and grandparents farm,” Wachuta said.
While Mezera has planted tomatoes and beans on his grandparents’ farm, where his parents also work, he wasn’t taking any chances.
“We fed it Miracle-Gro,” Mezera said, “and watered it to keep the bugs out.”
He was surprised by the size of the cabbage he planted in his mother’s flower garden. It grew so large it overtook the entire flower bed, he said.
Mezera isn’t the only child from the area to win a scholarship from Bonnie Plant. In September, Rachel Mertes of Onalaska, Wis., won $1,000 for her college fund with a 21-pound head of cabbage.
What can you do with that much cabbage? For Mezera’s mom, Beth, the answer was easy.
“We made it into homemade sauerkraut,” Beth said. “It’s good.”
Ryan Stotts can be reached at (608) 791-8446 or ryan.stotts@lee.net.
