Who will squash the bracket in Colorado State’s second annual Veggie Madness tournament?

Will tubers triumph at this year’s Veggie Madness? Or will it be winter squash, which took the lead Thursday afternoon during the second annual competition hosted by Colorado State University Office of Engagement and Extension.

The tournament of vegetables sprung up Monday and pitted 16 veggies — from asparagus to zucchini — in a sweet 16 matchup, a greener take on the annual March Madness college basketball spectacle. Voting on produce is part of the friendly rivalry among research extension offices around the state, but it’s still competitive. And the winner will be announced Friday.

“I don’t know that there’s not something nefarious going on. I mean, really? Winter squash beat out onions and now they’re leading potatoes as you and I speak?” said Todd Hagenbuch, agriculture specialist and county director of the Routt County Extension, rooting for potatoes during a call Thursday afternoon. “That just seems suspect.”

Hagenbuch, who admits he’s good friends with winter-squash supporter Alison O’Connor, has thoroughly enjoyed turning agriculture into a game. Coincidentally (or not?) the two were finalists last year with O’Connor’s pick, the sugar snap pea, beating out potatoes to become the 2024 Veggie Madness champion. 

After her win last year, organizers held a mock news conference where O’Connor touted peas’ superiority over potatoes. Team Potato pushed back and held a presser of its own about the popularity of potatoes. 

“Nobody goes to McDonald’s and says, ‘Yea, I’d like a side of peas with that,’” Hagenbuch said in the video.

O’Connor takes it all in stride, as she showcased in a 2024 winner’s video in the style of “The Office.” It’s a chance to kick off the start of spring and get folks out of those winter doldrums.

“It’s been a lot of fun, I’ll say that,” O’Connor said. “And it’s a very creative way to showcase some of our Colorado vegetables.”

While CSU is only in year two of Veggie Madness, there have been similar events for at least a decade. In 2014, the sports website SBNation hosted Veggie Madness with a 64-team bracket, with broccoli besting the rest to win the bounty. Over at the University of Washington School of Medicine, the 2020 chompion was the avocado. 

All for fun and mostly for marketing, other parodies include the Certified Angus Beef’s “Best Beef Bracket,” Kroger’s “Elite Ate” snack tournament and pet nutrition brand Royal Canin with its Ultimate Breed Showdown, Food Processing magazine reported.

In Colorado, the 16 contenders were all fresh picks, except for the potato because it’s “a perennial favorite,” as well as the top vegetable harvested in the U.S., Hagenbuch said.

Knocked out in the first round was the “tantalizing ‘it’ girl appetizer” brussel sprouts. It is kind of a wonder how those tiny-looking cabbages known for their, um, aroma, became such a hot dish in recent years. In her campaign to attract votes for cruciferous produce, Denyse Schrenker, an Extension Horticulture & Small Acreage Management specialist in Eagle, said that modern varieties have higher sugar content and lower glucosinolates that give them a “milder taste without the infamous sulfuric smell.”

Melons were also cut in the first round, much to the chagrin of John Murgel, a horticulture and natural resources specialist in Douglas County. He pushed back on criticism that Colorado melons shouldn’t be entering a vegetable contest because it’s a fruit.

“Well, I’ve got news for you,” Murgel said in a video making the case for melons. “All fruit is vegetables. They’re just vegetables with seeds in them.” 

In fact, he continued, other contenders were also impostors — cucumbers, eggplants, squash (“even the winter kind”), Pueblo chilis, tomato, sugar snap peas and even corn. 

“The only difference between all these vegetables and my vegetable is that my vegetable doesn’t taste like sand,” he said.

The competition has helped elevate Colorado’s agriculture, or at minimum, put a spotlight on top picks for home gardens.

O’Connor said she picked winter squash because of a five-year experiment with the Larimer County Master Gardener volunteers that she’d coordinated. They were looking for a squash with high yield but a small footprint for folks who don’t have much space to garden in their backyard. Winter squash includes acorn, butternut, spaghetti and delicata. That compares to the summer squash, like zucchini, which lost in the first round of this year’s tournament.

“We looked at how they grew, how small they stayed. We looked at total fruit development. And then we actually did a tasting as well,” she said. “Probably the one that came to the top for acorns was Honey Bear. That tasted the best. In terms of the greatest number of fruits, the Goldilocks. … Both were bush type instead of more viney, so they stayed more compact, which is really what we were looking for.” 

Hagenbuch recommends the Colorado Purple Majesty potato, a high-alititude potato with a “brilliant purple color, both in skin and in the meat,” that was developed by CSU, he said. 

“One of the goals of the research station is in partnership with the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee is to create varieties that do well, in particular in the San Luis Valley, but in other areas of Colorado too. These are potatoes that mature earlier than what you might find in other states and gives both the home gardener and our agricultural producers an opportunity to grow a really great product in our limited growing season,” he said. “And it’s not only delicious but a great conversation piece.” 

But if the potato isn’t picked again this year?

“Team Potato will be heartbroken,” Hagenbuch said. “At the end of the day, we will remain Colorado’s number one vegetable even if we don’t win the Veggie Madness competition. And you’ll see more potatoes served across more locations in Colorado on Saturday than you will winter squash.”

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