As the calendar turns to August, tomato season has officially begun in Saskatchewan. On Saturday, the Regina Farmers’ Market hosted its third Tomato Festival, where producers compete for unique crop-related awards. Rick Letwinka of Heliotrope Organic Farm took home four awards, winning “Best Overall Tomato”, “Prettiest Tomato” and runner up in the “Large Tomato” and “Cherry Tomato” competitions. Letwinka had a good idea of which award he appreciated the most. “The tastiest, obviously,” he said. “Size is whatever, but it’s all about the flavour.” Based just outside of Craven, tomato production is set to peak in late August. “To have this many tomatoes at this time of the season, it’s a lot of work in the greenhouse.” he said. “Staking them up, growing them up a string – most of those plants are 10 or 12-feet high right now. There’s lots of pruning and lots of sweating picking them.” Other awards included in the festival were the most unique tomato, tiniest tomato (0.16g), best tomato product (non-food), best display, best dressed vendor, best cherry tomato, largest tomato, best homegrown and guess the weight.
