EC elementary student top cabbage patch kid in Texas
BRAGGING RIGHTS: Bailey Popp's 15.03-pound cabbage was large enough to earn her state honors through the Bonnie Plants of Alabama nationwide contest.
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

Contributed Photo Leaps And Bounds Northside Elementary fourth grader Bailey Popp received honors for her state champ cabbage, shown here. Bonnie Plants of Alabama sponsors a nationwide contest, handing out a million cabbage seedlings a year to third graders. Popp's 15.03-pound monster - the largest grown in Texas - won her a $1,000 savings bond.

Not many fourth graders can manage to earn a state title in a school activity, but Bailey Popp of Northside Elementary pulled off that feat in a big way.

Last spring, Bailey was given a cabbage seedling in a paper cup, part of a project assigned by her third grade teacher, Deborah Capak. The seedling was one of 1 million given out to third graders nationwide as part of the Bonnie Plants of Alabama Cabbage Program.

"I kept telling my dad I wanted to plant it in a tractor tire, because I knew it was going to get big," Bailey said during an award ceremony Tuesday afternoon at her school.

She was honored not just by the seed company, but also with a proclamation from Texas Secretary of Agriculture Todd Staples for the final result of her project - a 15.03-pound head of cabbage.

"I thought it was really big," Bailey said of her cabbage, the largest grown in Texas for the program. "My mom and dad brought it in to school in a trash can."

Bailey is the daughter of Clark and Becky Popp of El Campo, and her mom was delighted with her unexpected win.

"We left it in a window sill in a Dixie cup and finally said, 'We have to plant this thing,'" Becky Popp said, noting she found out by e-mail that her daughter was the statewide winner.

Gladys Carlson, who is Becky's mom and Bailey's grandmother, said her daughter called as soon as the e-mail arrived.

"She was very excited," Carlson said. "She called me at work and said, 'I cannot believe this!' All of the family was very excited."

The child who grows the state's largest and healthiest cabbage - a variety that can reach 40 pounds - wins a $1,000 scholarship in the form of a Series I savings bond that will be worth $2,000 by the time Bailey finishes high school.

At Northside before her classmates, and later that night before the entire school board, Bailey's family came out to witness her honors.

In addition to Carlson and her parents, Bailey's ceremonies were attended by her grandparents, Marilyn and Frank Popp, and her aunt, Jane Stock.

Frank Popp, himself a retired rice farmer, still gardens, but doesn't grow cabbage. However, he credits good genetics for his granddaughter's success in the cabbage arena.

"She's got experience handed down from me to her dad to her," he said with a proud smile.

During a recognition ceremony that same night before the El Campo ISD board of trustees, Bailey was asked repeatedly to divulge the secret to her growing success, to name the key ingredient used to get her cabbage to such stupendous size.

To the gasps and chuckles of all in attendance, Bailey shyly explained the source of her very special fertilizer.

"Goat poop, from my (Youth) Fair goats," she said.