Greenhouse Competitions celebrates 15^th year with new trophies and Chef’s Choice awards.

On June 15, 2022, R.E.A.CH. International held its annual Greenhouse Competitions including “The Hottest Tomato”,  “The Perfect Pepper”, “The Coolest Cucumber” and the “Best Berry” Competitions.  This year had some exciting changes including the addition of a Specialty Berry category and the Chef’s Choice Awards.

“We are so excited about these new chef’s choice awards”, says President of R.E.A.CH. International, Art Barron. “Chef Henry Furtado had 136 products to go through and choose some produce to inspire some appetizers that were served at the awards ceremony. He chose 11 products that were each awarded Chef’s Choice certificates.”

This is the 15^th year for these unique competitions that have been running since 2007 to celebrate Essex County for being the largest greenhouse industry in North America. And the charity which runs the annual event uses the proceeds from the competition to sponsor over 50 children in Uganda, Africa, annually.  These sponsorships give the children and teens food, school supplies, medicine, and everything else they need to get an education and break the cycle of poverty.

A Very Different Kind of Charity: You wouldn’t naturally associate greenhouses with international child sponsorships but that’s exactly what has happened.  R.E.A.CH. International, the Canadian registered child-sponsorship charity, run completely by local volunteers, has been hosting an annual event that both celebrates our local Greenhouse Fame while sponsoring some of the poorest children and families in the world.  After many other charity scandals, people are often skeptical about what goes on in charities, which is why R.E.A.CH. International is so intriguing.  With no staff taking salaries, the charity is one of the very few that can guarantee that 100% of donated funds will be used for the intended purposes. 

The Greenhouse Competitions, presented in part by farm sponsors Red Sun Farms and Nature Fresh Farms, started on Wednesday morning. Produce was delivered to Kingsville Community Centre to be numbered and sorted by volunteers and then delivered to judges across Essex County. Once judges received their package of produce, it was time to evaluate and enter scores into a secured online database. These expert judges from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), grocery store produce managers, Culinary Guild of Windsor Chefs, and many others, judged the entries with a specialized list of criteria developed by our Head Judge, Shalin Khosla.

The awards ceremony was held in person at Kingsville Community Church and broadcast as a live stream at noon on Friday, June 17th.  To watch the recording of the award ceremony visit greenhousecompetitions.com.  The winners received newly designed ceramic cup trophies and, of course, the bragging rights as the best producers in North America.  Photos of the winners receiving their awards can be found at the website.

This year’s event will sponsor another 50 children and teens to attend school, meet medical, clothing or housing needs in Uganda, Africa, the third poorest nation in the world. And with the additional donations, as every year, R.E.A.CH. was able to continue to partner with and support the efforts of local charities who help our community. 

To become involved in this small but highly impactful charity, visit reaching.org.

Coolest Cucumber Competition
Cocktail Cucumbers			SCORE
CC318	Nature Fresh Farms	Tiny Cocktail Cucumber	811.1
CC218	Pure Flavor	Poco Bites Cucumber	811.0
CC065	Topline Farms	Huge Cruncher	758.3
Mini Cucumbers			SCORE
CM325	Pure Flavor	Pure Flavor Mini Cucumber	905.6
CM217	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Mini Cucumber	891.7
CM085	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Sunset Mini Cuke	863.9
English Cucumbers			SCORE
CE115	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Sunset English Cukes	811.1
CE382	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Long English	727.8
CE286	Pure Flavor	Pure Flavor Long English Cucumber	725.0
Overall Best Cucumber
CM325	Pure Flavor	Pure Flavor Mini Cucumber	905.6
Perfect Pepper Competition
Red Bell Pepper			SCORE
PR232	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Red Bell Pepper	980.0
PR549	Pure Flavor	Pure Flavor Sweet Red Bell	933.3
PR118	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Sunset Red Bell Pepper	893.3
Yellow Bell Pepper			SCORE
PY024	Pure Flavor	Pure Flavor Yellow Bell	850.0
PY375	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Sunset Yellow Bell Pepper	836.7
PY549	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Yellow Bell Pepper	760.0
Orange Bell Pepper			SCORE
PO515	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Orange Bell Pepper	980.0
PO241	Pure Flavor	Pure Flavor Sweet Orange Bell	923.3
PO127	Mucci Farms	Mucci Orange Bell Pepper	903.3
Specialty Mini Pepper			SCORE
PM762	Mucci Farms	Bella Sweets	826.7
PM178	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	One Sweet Pepper	823.3
PM083	DelFrescoPure	Sweetreats	806.7
Specialty Long Pepper			SCORE
PL379	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Wildwonder (Brown)	823.3
PL542	Mucci Farms	Rustico	790.0
PL017	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Wildwonder (Red)	763.3
Specialty Bell Pepper
PS111	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Aloha Bell Pepper	666.7
Hot Pepper			SCORE
PH452	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Yowzer Pepper	848.5
PH128	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Jalepeno	845.5
PH649	Mucci Farms	Mucci Ghost Pepper	830.3
Hottest Pepper was PH362 – Mucci Farms Carolina Reaper
Overall Best Pepper
PR232	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Red Bell Pepper	980.0
Best Berry Competition
Strawberry			SCORE
SS205	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Pear Berry	470.2
SS054	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Lolliberry	461.4
SS005	DelFrescoPure	Yes! Berries	415.8
Specialty Berry			SCORE
SB584	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Berry World Raspberry	301.8
SDB125	Nature Fresh Farms	Bashful Strawberries	215.8
Overall Best Berry
SS205	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Pear Berry	470.2
Hottest Tomato Competition
Beefsteak			SCORE
TB342	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Beefsteak Tomato #2	905.6
TB055	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Sunset Beefsteak Tomato	852.8
TB404	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Beefsteak Tomato #1	811.1
TOV/Cluster			SCORE
TV268	Mucci Farms	Prova	795.8
TV107	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Sunset TOV #1	794.4
TV622	Pure Flavor	Pure Flavor TOV	769.4
Roma			SCORE
TR825	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Roma	839.9
TR154	Pure Flavor	Pure Flavor Roma Tomato	719.4
TR052	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Sunset Romana	663.9
Cocktail			SCORE
TC104	DelFrescoPure	Delights	852.8
TC943	Nature Fresh Farms	Black Label Yoom	813.9
TC113	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Kumato	800.0
Specialty Tomato			SCORE
TS416	Nature Fresh Farms	Black Label Hiiro’s	972.2
TS217	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Valentino	925.0
TS162	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Moonglow	913.9
Bitesize			SCORE
TM582	Red Sun Farms	Sweet Pops	808.1
TM389	Nature Fresh Farms	Black Label Hiiro’s	805.6
TM116	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Angel Sweet	763.9
Overall Best Tomato
TS416	Nature Fresh Farms	Black Label Hiiro’s	972.2
NEW Chef’s Choice Competition
Hottest Tomato
TC157	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Yoom Cocktail Tomato
TV009	DelFrescoPure	Delfresco T.O.V.
TS217	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Valentino Specialty Tomato
TS018	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Sprinkles Specialty Tomato
Perfect Pepper
PL125	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Wildwonder (Yellow) Long Pepper
PR232	Nature Fresh Farms	Nature Fresh Red Bell Pepper
PL379	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Wildwonder (Brown) Long Pepper
PH362	Mucci Farms	Carolina Reaper Hot Pepper
Coolest Cucumber
CM485	Topline Farms	Topline Mini Cucumbers
CM318	Nature Fresh Farms	Tiny Cocktail Cucumbers
Best Berry
SS054	Sunset Mastronardi Produce	Lolliberry Strawberry