![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_6097.jpeg\")
Credit: Photo courtesy of Chlovia Loomis\/Growing Family Farms<\/p>\nBetsy Brightly\u2019s daughter plays college basketball alongside some team members from Spain. The foreign students don\u2019t like coleslaw \u2014 or they thought they didn\u2019t. Then Betsy made them a homemade batch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey love it,\u201d Brightly said. \u201cI have to make them bowls of it for the holidays because they don\u2019t go back to Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t hurt that she uses fresh cabbage harvested from the 450 acres at Brightly Farms, which the family owns and runs in Hamlin. Now, in the eyes (and appetites) of the athletes, there\u2019s simply no substitute for Brightly slaw.<\/p>\n
Behold the power of cabbage.<\/p>\n
Alongside squash, the crop is a mainstay of New York agriculture. The state is one of the largest producers of cabbage in the United States with more than 10,000 acres harvested, according to Farm to Institution New York State, a nonprofit dedicated to getting New York-grown food into institutions.<\/p>\n
Farms across the state collectively yield nearly 15% of the country\u2019s total cabbage. Only California produces more. Though shiny apples may get all the Instagram glory, leafy cabbage helps define the agricultural identity of the region.<\/p>\n
Credit: Photo courtesy of Chlovia Loomis\/Growing Family Farms<\/p>\n
Brightly\u2019s boasts over a million cabbages on the farm. Every single one is cut by hand. Many go to cold storage rooms waiting for order fulfillment from fresh markets and distributors. Some become KFC coleslaw; others end up inside egg rolls in the New York City area.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople think, \u2018who\u2019s buying cabbage?\u2019 Well, just the egg rolls alone, right? And pierogies,\u201d Brightly said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different food that you don\u2019t think about that cabbage is in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many companies prefer the cabbage grown in New York to crops in the southern states, she added, because of its particular profile. Hard frost and cooler weather makes Empire State cabbage white inside, with a crisp texture that gives it crunch.<\/p>\n
As such, the scent of sulfur-rich cabbage is a hallmark of Western and Central New York. The village of Phelps in Ontario County was formerly known as the sauerkraut capital of the world. The odor characterized communities like nearby Shortsville, meanwhile, for decades before a major processing center closed in 2018.<\/p>\n
Chlovia Loomis remembers the scent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up out here in Hilton and I remember driving past cabbage fields. You smell it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt smells sulfury outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now in her late 20s, Loomis is a visual artist whose striking paintings of everyday objects use color in bold ways. Many of them are inspired by her work managing the organic Growing Family Farms on Peck Road in Hilton \u2014 including plenty of cabbage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not storing cabbage for a super long time,\u201d she said of the farm\u2019s smaller scope. \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on selling it as fresh as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Loomis, the relatively small-scale 2,000 to 3,000 cabbages at Growing Family Farms aren\u2019t as pungent as the acres on larger operations elsewhere in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not fields and fields of cabbage, but we\u2019re growing caraflex or tiara or specialty varieties and then making sure we harvest them early in the morning so they taste their best,\u201d Loomis said.<\/p>\n
Chefs often come calling. If a restaurant wants to make bulk sauerkraut in the fall, GFF can grow an extra few dozen plants for that purpose. Usually, Loomis said, her operation varies week by week, focusing on CSA members and local hubs like the Brighton Farmers Market. Recent fare included brilliant green and purple napa cabbages, perfect for kimchi dishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cool weather cabbages taste sweeter because the plants produce more sugars,\u201d Loomis said. \u201cSummer would be the hardest time here [for cabbage], so then you get them a lot in fall, because then they head up around this time of year when the light cycle starts tapering off.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s lack of rain has led to smaller yields, felt by both Loomis and Brightly. And pests remain a particular problem for cabbage.<\/p>\n
As part of the brassica genus, cabbage plants attract many unwelcome guests, most prominently the invasive cabbage moth. Crop damage leads to fewer crops, so naturally, addressing pests and weeds is a high priority for field researchers.<\/p>\n
In the past two decades, the state\u2019s Cabbage Research and Development Program has undertaken studies on pest control; in conjunction with Cornell Cooperative Extension, other issues like crop rotation and the use of nitrogen in fertilization have also been studied.<\/p>\n
Christine Smart has been working with cabbage growers in the state since 2004. Her car even boasts an \u201cI love New York cabbage\u201d magnet.<\/p>\n
Smart, who now heads up the research initiative Cornell AgriTech, said cabbage is \u201cfoundational\u201d to New York agriculture. As such, the research aims to help farmers adapt their methods for better yields.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really fantastic because the growers actually make a list of their priorities. What are the issues that they\u2019re facing?\u201d she said. \u201cIt really becomes this partnership between the researchers and cabbage growers to solve the most important problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
The future of cabbage just might be varieties like caraflex, a cone-shaped head that tastes sweeter. Both Loomis and Brightly grow it, and Brightly even visited Holland to do trials with a seed company.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Europe, that\u2019s in every grocery store,\u201d Brightly said. \u201cThat\u2019s what they like to eat. It\u2019s amazing grilled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back at home, though, coleslaw is still the standard for her and her husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery restaurant we go in, we have to order coleslaw because he\u2019s got to taste it to see if they make good coleslaw,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it just doesn\u2019t pan out to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brightly slaw remains hard to beat, thanks to homegrown cabbage.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Betsy Brightly\u2019s daughter plays college basketball alongside some team members from Spain. The foreign students don\u2019t like coleslaw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15412,9,24,55,54,56,15413,15414],"class_list":{"0":"post-23635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-home-feature","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-section-feature","15":"tag-wxxipromo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}