It was the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown. Restaurants were closed. And up to three million pounds of cabbage were piling up at the MacKenzie farm, the largest cabbage farm on Prince Edward Island. The demand for cabbage, or rather coleslaw – an island favourite served alongside lobster suppers and fish and chips during the busy tourist season – had plummeted. Farmers feared for their livelihoods.
Ms. Thurlow, 71, appointed herself the “colonel of the cabbage army.” Her mission: to rescue PEI’s cabbage industry and, in doing so, the cruciferous vegetable’s lowly reputation. Ms. Thurlow’s cabbage crusade began with a Facebook group to help spread the word about the potential of cabbage in cookery. She called out for cabbage recipes, and people who were bored during the pandemic responded. She talked up cabbage on a local radio show. Around town she started to become known as the cabbage lady.
Ms. Thurlow says people are wrong to jeer at the cabbage, which she contends is sweet and crisp in a coleslaw, or silky and nutty as a substitute for a baked potato when roasted with olive oil and salt.
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