A Big, Red, Juicy Competition

The people on the stage in this picture are holding up numbers.  2, 1.5, 2.5, 4, and 3.5.  Clearly they are rating something.

Perhaps it's a beauty contest.  Or a gymnastics meet.  They use numbers when they judge, don't they?

But no.  This competition had nothing to do with beauty or gymnastics.  

No, this competition was about all about tomatoes.  Big, red, juicy tomatoes.

It's called the Great Northwest Tomato Taste-Off and it's part of the yearly Gathering of Gardeners that happens at the Village Green in September.   The winner got $500 and a 2-night stay at the Village Green so this was a competition worth competing in.

This year there were 68 tomatoes entered into the competition.  The judges tasted each and every one of them, and rated them on a scale of 1-5.  It took them about an hour to taste them all.  I wonder if they are "tomatoed-out" by the time they are finished.

There was a tie for 1st place so the judges had to do a tie breaker taste-off.  One more round and the winners were announced.  

Second and third place went to a husband and wife - she won third place for her variety, "Truffle."  He won second place for his variety, "Ernie's Faux."  Both Truffle and Ernie's Faux are seed varieties grown at Territorial Seed Company, right here in GroveAtopia.  They sponsor the Tomato Taste Off.

The winner, whose name is Don, won for a variety called "Hillbilly." His tomato was not grown from seed from these parts.  No, Don had traded for the seed with a friend from Texas.  

So a tomato that came from seed from Texas won the Great Northwest Tomato Taste-Off, but no one seemed to mind.  The winners and their tomatoes still got a hardy round of applause, whether they were from around here or not.   

And it was even better than a beauty contest.