BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- There's a lot on the vine at the Boston Public Market Tuesday for growers who brought their tomatoes to the 34th annual Massachusetts Tomato Contest.
Farmers across the Commonwealth are competing to take home their very own tomato trophies.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens asked one of the judges, food freelance writer Roz Cummins, what they're looking for in the perfect tomato.
"To me, the most important thing always is the flavor," she said. "Depending on the type of the tomato, you want to look for a balance of acidity and sweetness, and then you also look for structure. Here, they call that firmness. And you also want to make sure that there's no air in the cavity."
Carl Hills, one of the participating farmers with Kimball Fruit Farms in Pepperell, said it's been a challenging year because of the weather.
"Well, we started out with a drought, two months of a drought," he said. "And then we got enough rain for a year, which makes diseases really tough."
Despite all the weather challenges, he hopes to have an award-winner here.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens (@carlwbz) reports