Scott Robb won the state fair cabbage title with 122.7 pounds

Scott Robb of Palmer won the Alaska State Fair's Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off on Thursday with a 122.7-pound cabbage, and the only person he really had to beat was himself.

Robb holds the world record for the largest cabbage ever grown, a 138.25-pound monster he raised in 2012 and still stands, according to the fair's own records. This year's winner came in about 16 pounds shy of that.

It was the 30th running of the weigh-off. Paul Dinkel took second at 98.2 pounds and Brian Shinskis third at 85.3, in a field where first place paid $1,000 and the top 20 finishers split more than $2,000.

Robb's record is well enough known that a state senator brought it up in Juneau this spring while making the case for an official state vegetable. "The current Guinness World Record for the largest cabbage ever grown belongs to a 138¼-pound giant cabbage grown in Palmer," Sen. Scott Kawasaki told a committee in May.

Alaska grows cabbages like this because long subarctic days give the plants far more light than they would get almost anywhere else, and in the right hands that turns into vegetables the size of a truck tire.

The fair runs through Sept. 7.