
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 27, 1995                   TAG: 9508250042
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ON BENT MOUNTAIN, PROFITABLE POTATOES UPROOT CABBAGE

Carroll and Patrick counties aren't the only places where cabbage farming is on the decline in Southwest Virginia. People driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Bent Mountain section of Roanoke County may have noticed that the cabbage fields that once were a feature there are gone, too.

Those fields belonged to Fletcher Wimmer, who gave up cabbage this year in favor of potatoes.

Drier weather patterns, crop diseases and low prices had made cabbage growing an unprofitable enterprise, Wimmer said.

Wimmer grew cabbage on Bent Mountain for 30 years, and his father grew it before him. Wimmer planted 35 acres of cabbage a year, nearly 10 times that planted by the few other growers on the mountain.

He marketed his cabbage to wholesale produce dealers in Roanoke, but prices were dictated by the larger cabbage markets in the East and North and weren't high enough in recent years to keep him from losing money.

"It seems like our expenses go up every year, and our prices go down," Wimmer said.

by CNB