Tomatoes color the day at the 39th annual Tomato Tasting Competition in Boston

BOSTON — It was his first year judging Massachusetts tomatoes but James Hills, a partner at Boston Public Market, where the state hosts its annual tasting contest, acquiesced. By his 20th bite, he was full and just about ready to pick what was, in his opinion, the tastiest heirloom.

Then it happened.

“It was one of the tomatoes close to the end. I had already tasted like 20, but this one, the flavor popped,” Hills said. “It was balanced between sweet and acidic; it was firm and even aesthetically pleasing.”

The host of the internet talk show "Java with Jimmy," Hills had interviewed Massachusetts Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle earlier in the month. The encounter went so well that her office reached out and asked whether he wanted to judge the annual contest.

Also a newbie, Aidan Doherty, a Braintree resident and employee of Sen. Becca Rausch, D-Needham, offered his services as an alternate. He was lucky enough to fill someone’s shoes.

After judging the entrants in the cherry tomato category, Doherty spent some time contemplating the best possible ways to eat an heirloom tomato that he was taking home for his dinner. He settled on a tomato sandwich, arugula, double-sided mayonnaise and slices of thick-cut bacon. He even purchased fancy salt at the market to sprinkle on his prize.

Judge Ahmed Yasin, owner of the former Kareem Restaurant in Watertown that he plans to reopen as a catering service, offered a simple recipe for nature’s bounty.

“I love tomatoes. I can eat them three, four times a day,” Yasin said. He looks for flavor first, then texture — there must be a balance between sour and sweet, and it must be juicy. His area for the day: slicing or field tomatoes.

For his recipe, he sautés one to two pounds of fresh, ripe tomatoes (the amount is adjusted depending on the number of people he’s feeding) in olive oil with a bit of hot peppers added, along with a dash of pomegranate molasses, honey, cumin, salt and pepper. Chicken breast can be grilled or sauteed in olive oil but needs no more flavorings added than the fresh sauce. Yasin suggests serving with pilaf or vermicelli.

The yearly contest is sponsored in part by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources with the New England Vegetable and Berry Growers Association and Massachusetts Farmers Markets.

“Massachusetts consumers love tomatoes,” said Edith Murnane of the Massachusetts Farmers Markets, based in Westborough. “Tomatoes bring consumers to markets, which is where farmers get to be financially sound; tomatoes offer a high return on investment.”

More than 700 Massachusetts farmers grow 6 million pounds of the fruit annually, a crop worth $10 million.

“That’s significant,” said Randle. She thanked the participating farmers, noting that there were 109 entries from 84 farms, up from the last year when fewer than half that number of farms participated.

While Mother Nature challenged state farmers last year, she was much kinder this year with an extended growing season that started two weeks earlier than usual and much less rain to date, Randle said. There has been some pressure on the state’s agricultural sector from a burgeoning deer population, however.

“It has been a great year for agriculture here,” Randle said.

And the winners are:

Slicing category: Langwater Farm in North Easton: BHN 589

Cherry category: Freedom Food Farm in Raynham: Black cherry

Heirloom category: Russell Orchards in Ipswich, speckled Roman. And the heaviest tomato, an oxheart, weighed in at 2.3 pounds and was grown at Ward’s Berry Farm in Sharon.

The leftover tomatoes not cut up, tasted, nibbled on or otherwise compromised were donated to Food for Free.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 39th annual Tomato Tasting Competition held in Boston