An event that encourages healthy eating and moving is happening on July 11 and July 12 at the Lawton Farmers Market.
The annual Tomato Festival, which is in part sponsored by Comanche County Memorial Hospital, brings the community together for a fun day of competition and tomatoes.
The 14th annual tomato festival brings the community out for a bit of fun competition to see who can grow the prettiest, ugliest, best-tasting, and largest tomato.
“The largest tomato each year always runs around two pounds, so just to know that, that’s what it takes to win,” Dr. Legako, the president of the Lawton Farmers Market, said. “We have cash prizes for those things.”
Dr. Legako says it doesn’t matter if you have one tomato plant or 100; anybody is able to enter the contest.
“It’s a chance for everyone to get out and view the different tomatoes because when you come to the festival, you’ll be able to see some different varieties, and the public will judge the prettiest and the ugliest tomatoes,” Dr. Legako said. “Yet, we have judges who will judge the best-tasting tomato.”
The festival also has a salsa contest for those who think they make the best salsa. He says if you want to enter, you need to bring in a pint of salsa. The entries need to be in by 9 a.m. on July 12.
On July 11, they’re going to be having an art show to kick off the festival. All of the farmers market-themed art will be on display for a month and available for purchase.
Not only that, but there are several events happening at the market to encourage people to be active. There will be a 2K walk in downtown Lawton, Zumba and Yoga in Shepler Park, and a talk about home fitness.
“A new activity added this year by Fit Kids of SWOK is a kids art show where all the art displays will be up at the market itself, so you’ll be able to visualize all the different art that kids bring in, and they can do some incredible things with the art,” Dr. Legako said.
The festival kicks off on July 11 with an art show at the Leslie Powell Gallery and then continues on July 12 at the Lawton Farmers Market from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. He says you’ll want to get there before 10 a.m. if you want to purchase tomatoes because they usually sell out quickly.
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