News
Big wins at Greenhouse Competitions

June 18, 2018 By Greenhouse Canada

(l to r) Back row: Fernanda Albuquerque (Mucci Farms), Leona Neill and Costin Beliciu (Red Sun Farms), Graham Hamilton (Double Diamond), Middle Row: Corey Futko & Kiley Gray (Pure Flavor), Justine Chevalier & Melanie Mastronardi (Sunset Produce) Kneeling in the front: Matt Quiring (Nature Fresh) & Steve Stasko (Orangeline Produce)

A new competition for strawberries was introduced at the 11^th annual Greenhouse Competitions this year, and it was a hit.

Held from June 15 to 17 at the Leamington Fair, this year’s Greenhouse Competitions included ‘The Hottest Tomato’, ‘The Perfect Pepper’, ‘The Coolest Cucumber’ and new this year – “ The Sweetest Strawberry’. Greenhouse growers entered their best produce into different categories within each competition, ensuring that entries were judged against similar products.

The event celebrates Essex County as the largest greenhouse industry in North America – but that’s not all. Hosted by R.E.A.C.H. International, net proceeds from registration entry fees go to the Canadian registered child-sponsorship charity and will be used for their main project in Uganda, Africa.

The competitions were carried out in two stages. Entries were judged blind by representatives from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), grocery store produce managers, Culinary Guild of Windsor Chefs and others using a pre-determined set of criteria that included acidity, fruit wateriness, blemishes, colour and more. Entries with the highest scores in each category were declared winners, in addition to overall winners in each competition.

Following official judging, the public was invited to vote for their favourites in the ‘People’s Choice’ awards. This year, over 1000 votes were garnered, with lots of excitement around the new strawberry category for the “Kids’s Choice” award.

“The proceeds from the competition raises enough money to sponsor over 50 children in Uganda, Africa annually,” states R.E.A.C.H. International. “The sponsorships give the children food, school supplies, medicine and everything else they need to get an education and break the cycle of poverty.”

Entirely run by local volunteers, this group has raised thousands of dollars to build schools and clinics, create clean water sources, and sponsor and care for impoverished children in Uganda.

R.E.A.C.H. would like to acknowledge Red Sun Farms for their Farm-level sponsorship of the event, as well as financial support from Agrolux Horticultural Lighting, Nature Fresh Farms and UCB Canada.

Here were the winners of the 2018 competition:

Hottest Tomato Competition

Category	Place	Producer/Product
Beefsteak	1^st	Pure Flavor Beefsteak
	2^nd	Nature Fresh Beefsteak
	3^rd	Sunset Slicer Beefsteak
Cluster	1^st	Sunset Avalantino
	2^nd	Red Sun Farms Specialty TOV
	3^rd	Nature Fresh TOV #1
Roma	1^st	Red Sun Farms Roma Tomato
	2^nd	Sunset Produce Roma
	3^rd	Pure Flavor Roma
Cocktail	1^st	Sunset Produce Kumato
	2^nd	Nature Fresh Tomz Cocktail #3
	3^rd	Del Fresco Cocktail Tomato
Specialty	1^st	Red Sun Farms Specialty Cherry Tomato
	2^nd	Sunset Orange Crunch
	3^rd	Nature Fresh Tomz Red Cherry
Bite Size	1^st	Sunset Produce Flavor Bombs
	2^nd	Sunset Florantino
	3^rd	Sunset One Sweet Tomato

Overall Best: Sunset Produce Kumato Cocktail Tomato

People’s Choice: Nature Fresh TOMZ Tomberries

Kid’s Choice: Nature Fresh TOMZ Tomberries

Coolest Cucumber Competition

Category	Place	Producer/Product
English	1^st	Mucci Farms English Cucumber
	2^nd	Sunset English Cukes
	3^rd	Nature Fresh Long English
Mini	1^st	Red Sun Farms Mini Cucumber
	2^nd	Trison Mini Tribute Crunch
	3^rd	Mucci Farms Mini Cuke
Cocktail	1^st	Pure Flavor Poco Bites
	2^nd	Sunset Produce One Sweet Cucumber
	3^rd	Double Diamond Cocktail Cukes

Overall Best: Pure Flavor Poco Bites

People’s Choice: Mucci Farms Cute-cumber Poppers

Kid’s Choice: Nature Fresh Nature Fresh Mini Cukes

Perfect Pepper Competition

Category	Place	Producer/Product
Red Bell Pepper	1^st	Double Diamond Red Pepper
	2^nd	Del Fresco Red Pepper
	3^rd	Nature Fresh Red Bell
Yellow Bell Pepper	1^st	Orangeline Zing! Yellow Pepper
	2^nd	Del Fresco
	3^rd	Trison Farms
Orange Bell Pepper	1^st	Orangeline Zing! Orange Bell
	2^nd	Mucci Farms
	3^rd	Del Fresco
Specialty Mini Pepper	1^st	Orangeline Zing! Lunchbox Orange
	2^nd	Topline Produce Mini Seedless
	3^rd	Nature Fresh Yellow Snack
Specialty Bell Pepper	1^st	Sunset Produce Aloha
	2^nd	Orangeline Zing! Chocolate Bell
Specialty Long Pepper	1^st	Mucci Farms Rustico
	2^nd	Orangeline Zing! Super Sweet Sheppard
	3^rd	Tie: Sunset Sweet Twisters, Pure Flavor Aurora Sweets
Specialty Hot Pepper	1^st	Sunset Produce Ancient Hots
	2^nd	Del Fresco
	3^rd	Orangeline Zing! Peter Pepper