Tomato Was King But Brandy Barnes is Queen in Ruskin

By Mitch Traphagen

mitch@observernews.net

RUSKIN - The 2003 Ruskin Tomato and Heritage Festival was bigger and better than ever.

The festival, held May 3 and 4 under bright and sunny Florida skies at E.G. Simmons park included everything from beauty pageants to hovercraft rides, artists and crafts, water balloon fights and, of course, delicious food.

Brandy Barnes, 18, of Ruskin was crowned as the 2003 Ruskin Tomato Queen. Barnes is the daughter of Bobby and Janine Barnes.

Ruskin Tomato Princesses were also crowned during the pageant. The princesses are Sabrina Sotelo, 5, of Ruskin, Alicia Medrano, 6, of Riverview, Jaclyn Hernandez, 10, of Ruskin and Megan Givens, 14, of Wimauma.

The Ruskin Tomato Queen Pageant was sponsored by the Ruskin Junior Woman's Club and the Ruskin Chamber of Commerce.

Repeating years of tradition, crowds lined up for free tomato slices and $1 tomato sandwiches. Other vendors offered everything from orignal art to freshly popped kettle corn popcorn.

According to festival organizer Charlie Riddle, "I think overall I think it went pretty good. Saturday the attendance was down a little bit but we more than made up for it on Sunday. Every year it gets a little bit better."

"We had some new entertainment this year that we really enjoyed," Riddle said. "We're going to try to get the animal guy, Wonders of Nature, next year. The kids really liked that. Of course everyone enjoyed Paul Carr and the Swamp Stompers."

"Next year we're going to try to rearrange the whole festival - we're going to try to get it off the blacktop and into the grass," Riddle continued. "We're going to try a whole different format for the vendors. It will keep getting better every year."