Hanover again celebrates the apple of its eye: tomatoes | Richmond Local News

Depending on the hour, the big seller Saturday at Hanover County’s annual celebration of the healthful fruit with which it’s synonymous — the tomato — was funnel cake or shaved ice.

“That’s the joy of this,” said John Budesky, county administrator. “There’s something for everyone.”

Before the steamy summer sun was high in the sky, funnel cake — a warm, curlicue confection of deep-fried batter, garnished with powdered sugar — was popular among those streaming to the Hanover Tomato Festival at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville.

By midday, as the mercury pushed toward 90 degrees and the air was thick with humidity, a long queue had formed in front of the stand where one could purchase cooling cups of shaved ice flavored with sugary water in tropical colors.

After a two-year hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, the festival returned this weekend, but it’s been re-calibrated.

This year, for the first time, the festival was staged over two days — Friday and Saturday, for four hours each day. In the past, it ran over three days, attracting between 20,000 and 40,000 people.

More than 10,000 were expected this year, Budesky said.

In 2020 and 2021, the festival was canceled — a casualty of COVID-19 — though last year a monthlong observance was held, with tomato-themed events at five parks across the county.

And noting that 10 vendors canceled plans to sell their wares or set up information booths at the 2022 festival, Budesky said the pandemic “is still having a shadow effect on the event.”

Even as a new variant of the coronavirus wells up, masks were anything but numerous Saturday among festival-goers. Over several hours, just 13 people were spotted wearing masks.

Though it’s not one of the state’s bigger producers of tomatoes, Hanover has a reputation among aficionados for nurturing a particularly tasty variety of the fruit. Enthusiasts attribute that to Hanover’s sandy soil on the east side of the county, where most of the crop is raised.

Ed Wall, a Virginia Cooperative Extension Service-trained master gardener who lives in eastern Hanover, answered questions and provided tips on the varieties of tomatoes — “there have got to be hundreds” — and controlling the winged and crawly pests for which the plants can be a smorgasbord.

The service’s information stand, flanked by towering plants raised in pots and set up under an open-air marquee that provided refuge from the sun, was among the festival’s few tomato-centric concessions.

Public safety agencies, artists, religious organizations, investment firms, car dealers, a theater group and a radio station had a presence at the festival. So did a berry farm, a beekeeper and a purveyor of hemp products.

Sacks and boxes of locally grown tomatoes were available for purchase at two tents operated by Hanover’s parks and recreation department.

A bag, typically containing six good-size ’maters, went for $10. A 25-pound case cost $35.

Mouth-stretching bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches were available for $12 — a buck more than last year — at a stand operated by Chris Nelson, a food broker, and his family.

“I feel bad about charging so much,” said Nelson, though a steady stream of customers indicated that they didn’t mind.