PALMER, Alaska — "That one right there," said John V.R. Evans, his native Welsh lilt dropping to a reverential near-whisper. "That could be a winner. Major, major potential."
It was a glorious, bright day in Alaska's Matanuska Valley, and Evans' backyard garden was framed by the majestic peaks of the Chugach and Talkeetna mountain ranges.
But to Evans, what was most beautiful about the scene were the fast-growing plants in the ground, one already 5 feet across and swelling as much as an inch a day under a sun that barely sets this time of year. "That's a cabbage, man," he pointed out proudly -- and, if all grows well, one of his entries in the giant-vegetable contest at the Alaska State Fair here.
Evans certainly knows how to pick 'em -- the man holds 14 all-time records at the fair, and he's been in the Heaviest Fruit and Vegetables category in the Guinness World Records book seven times. Guinness still lists the crowning achievement of Evans' career: No one on record has ever grown a larger carrot.
"You wouldn't believe what a fantastic feeling that was," Evans said of his 1998 feat.
"It's the biggest high you could imagine, to pull a 19-pound carrot out of the ground."
So perhaps he exaggerates -- Guinness lists his carrot as 18 pounds, 13 ounces. It's a Bunyanesque stretch of a core truth that belies Alaska's frozen-north image: Alaska's an ideal place to grow really, really big vegetables.
As in, a 75.75-pound rutabaga. A 63.3-pound celery. A 39.2-pound turnip. World records, all.
With rich, glacier-ground volcanic soil and summer days that have 20 hours of sunshine -- a lot of photo to go along with the synthesis -- the fertile valleys here attract big-veggie growers the way Mt. Everest attracts climbers.
Alaska's agricultural industry is tiny. It took in about $50 million last year, ranking last among the 50 states. California grossed $27.8 billion.
But what it lacks in size, Alaska makes up for in, well, size.
To a small but obsessed group of farmers, the holy grail is the giant cabbage, the centerpiece award at the annual fair, which this year will be Aug. 25 through Sept. 5.
"They're very demanding, but very beautiful plants, sort of like a giant green rose," said Scott Robb, a Palmer grower who said he was devastated one year when moose nibbled away a potential prizewinner. He put up an electric fence to stop the beasts from doing that again.
