The St. Denis World Champion Cabbage Chuck

If you ask me, the best part of the St. Denis World Championship cabbage chuck is the soup.

Others may disagree.

But, on a very busy Saturday afternoon, that thick, tasty, hearty, booyah-inspired cup of cabbage deliciousness really hit the spot and it only cost $2.50.

Other people in our little party found the actual chuck more entertaining. One of us even got to fire one of the cabbage cannons.

All in all, we thought it was a pretty cool little festival.

For the past 15 years, teams of people have been putting together various catapults and trebuchets to send giant heads of cabbage screaming at various targets placed out in a field near St. Denis Parish.

Say what you will about us Wisconsinites, we find all sorts of ways to amuse ourselves and raise a little money for a good cause.

In Shiocton, best known through my childhood as a prime location for sturgeon spawning, they’ve also been chucking cabbage for the past 15 years. The chucking itself involves 11 different categories including centrifugal (each machine competing in this category must spin at least one full circle before chucking), catapult, trebuchet, human power and torsion. Some of these categories also include child divisions for the under 18 crowd.

We missed the Shiocton Flyers Club Flyover that took place midway through the event, but I did see the club’s witty post recruiting toy soldiers “We offer insurance for accidental Lake Park drowning and for suffocation in sweaty pre-teen kid hands” so I know it would have been fun. I also think it’s pretty cool for a community the size of Shiocton (population 854) to have an airport and a flyers club.

Like most festivals, this one also included kids games, raffles, live music and really good food. The pulled pork sandwich was one of the best I”ve had and it only cost $3 ($3.50 if you want a little fresh coleslaw on top).

I’m already looking forward to next year’s chuck.