The Alaska State Fair held annually in Palmer, 42 miles northeast of Anchorage, is not your regular agricultural show. Here farmers from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley routinely display vegetables and produces of gargantuan sizes — a 138-pound cabbage, 65-pound cantaloupe and 35-pound broccoli are just a few of the monsters that have sprung forth from Alaska's soil in recent years. "Some things [are so big], you can't even recognize what they are," said the fair's crop superintendent Kathy Liska.

Why do vegetables grow so big in Alaska? Because of the sun.

A giant pumpkin and a cabbage at the Alaska State Fair in 2009. Photo credit