Deanna Hurstfield didn't know she liked tomatoes until she was in her twenties. "I thought that they were messy," said Hurstfield. "To me, they didn't have a lot of flavour.
" That changed when a friend introduced her to a fresh garden tomato served up with a bit of salt and pepper. "It was like, 'oh, now I understand why people like tomatoes,'" she said. From that early dislike of tomatoes, Hurstfield has made a near-complete turnaround.
She now organizes the annual Tomato Festival at the Kamloops Farmers Market, about 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. WATCH | Some top tips for planting tomatoes: Get gardening with these top tips for planting tomatoes 13 days ago Duration 2:03 For many, spring signals the time of year to start working on your backyard garden. CBC's Jenifer Norwell caught up with the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc Food Sovereignty Team to learn a little bit more about how to properly prepare and plant tomatoes.
At the festival, growers enter tomatoes in a competition for the People's Choice Award, where people get the chance to pick their favourite out of the vast diversity now available. The widening tomato selection at the local farmers market is part of a much broader movement, in which producers all over the world are responding to consumer demand for more options beyond the standard red grocery store tomato. Tomatoes can be grown outside in farms and gardens in many parts of Canada.
(Andrew Coppolino/CBC) With about 19,000 different tomato types listed .
