While black-eyed peas get most of the attention in the southern U.S. as a New Year's Day's "good luck" food, another lucky food, cabbage, plays a more dominant role in Texas agriculture, said a Texas Cooperative Extension economist.

"Texas is the third-largest cabbage producing state, behind California and New York," said Jose Peña, Extension economist at the Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center here. "The state produces 320 million to 350 million pounds of cabbage annually."

Peña estimates cabbage will generate more than $200 million in economic impact for the state this year.
Along with black-eyed peas, rice, ham and collard greens and other legumes, cabbage is one of the traditional New Year's luck foods, which are supposed to bring good fortune for the coming year.

The tradition of eating cabbage for good luck comes from the association of cabbage with prosperity, according to TOPICS online magazine.

While Irish tradition emphasizes eating of cabbage and other traditional foods on St. Patrick's Day, German, Dutch and other European cultures emphasize eating sauerkraut (literally: "sour cabbage"), usually with pork, on New Year's Day.

Even the word "cabbage" is used in the U.S. as slang for money, especially paper money.

"Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable and has been cultivated for more than 2,500 years,"said Ray Clark, executive director of the Leafy Greens Council in St. Paul, Minn. "It is a real food tradition in Western culture. The Romans ate it, and it has been a food mainstay for the Irish and Germans for many hundreds of years."

Cabbage is low in cholesterol and saturated fat, and is a good source of fiber and vitamin C, plus vittamin A in some varieties, said Jacqueline Replogle, Extension nutrition assistant in College Station.

"There has been research to suggest that cabbage may also reduce the risk for certain types of cancer, including colon, rectal and prostate cancer," she added. "It's a very healthy food."

Cabbage is grown on about 9,000 acres in Texas, with about 2,000 of those acres in Uvalde County. Green and red cabbage comprise the main cabbage crops for the state.

"When people talk about cabbage production in the Winter Garden area of Texas, they're basically talking about the production in Uvalde County,"

said Kenneth White, Extension agent for agriculture here. "Almost half of the vegetable production in the county is from cabbage, and here we grow and harvest cabbage crops almost throughout the year."

Many producers avoid harvesting cabbage during the summer months because the crop must be harvested manually and the Texas heat makes that difficult, White added.

Where does all this cabbage go?

"I'd estimate that 60 percent to 70 percent of all cabbage produced in Texas goes into the making of cole slaw," Peña said. "Much of that cole slaw goes to large restaurant chains across the country. Only a small portion of cabbage production goes toward other uses, such as in retail sales and the making of other consumer products, like sauerkraut."

Cabbage is such a large crop in Central and South Texas that Cabbage Inc., one of the nation's largest cabbage shipper-growers, has a facility, Cabbage Texas, in La Pryor. Cabbage Texas harvests and ships cabbage to processing plants throughout the U.S.

"Recent weather conditions have been perfect for growing cabbage," said Dr. Larry Stein, Extension horticulturist at the Uvalde center. "The weather has been dry and cool, and while the cabbage crop has required some irrigation, we're not having problems with insects or diseases commonly associated with excess moisture."

There were, however, insects and disease problems with the cabbage crop earlier in the year, noted Stein.
"For a while, there was too much moisture and we had a problem with whiteflies," he said. "But we're past that now. In all, it has been a very good year for cabbage."

While other "good luck" vegetables are grown in Central and South Texas, cabbage producers have been have been particularly lucky with this crop during the year, he said.