Agricultural oddities — Ham and cabbage

You’ve heard the Bible story about feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves of fishes.

How about the load of cabbage big enough to make cole slaw for an entire mega-church congregation?

It’s the lead story in the latest edition of Agricultural Oddities — Believe Them or Not.

E. W. DeLong of Crown Point delivered a load of 80 cabbages to Ticonderoga that weighed a combined total of 558 pounds, the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported Aug. 19, 1920.

That would make enough cole slaw to feed 2,790 people, according to a recipe on ellenskitchen.com.

The largest head of cabbage on the load weighed 14.5 pounds — enough to make cole slaw for a rural or small-city church congregation of 72 people, with half a serving left over as a second portion for the pastor.

Speaking of clergy, The Post-Star on Aug. 29, 1945 reported that the Rev. Alexis Hanna, pastor of the Syrian Orthodox Church in South Glens Falls, stopped by newspaper offices to show off a basket of tomatoes, each of which weighed more than two pounds, that he grew in his garden.

“Father Hanna’s gardens have become widely known and are visited each summer by many interested persons.”

Want some ham with that cabbage?

The Morning Star reported on Dec. 21, 1883 that “a massive hog” was on display at Vermillia and & Hasting’s market on Warren Street in Glens Falls.

“The weight of the animal, dressed, is six hundred pounds.”

The following tale of the “near-sighted hen” is amusing, but a little too tall a tale to be believed.

“A gentleman living on Quaker Street has a near-sighted hen which recently ate sawdust supposing it to be corn meal, then went and laid a nest of bureau knobs, sat on them three weeks and hatched out a complete set of parlor furniture.” — The Granville Sentinel — April 7, 1876

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