Polanco has celebrated this Sunday the award ceremony of the National Ancient Tomato Contest 2026, in which the great winner has been the Palentino Emilio Medina. This gardener has prevailed in the categories of best tomato in Spain, thanks to the variety Negro del Escorial, and best international tomato, with an Ananas Noir of French origin.
The rest of the honor roll has been completed by Mari Carmen Toca, who has obtained first place in the Polanco Tomato category with the variety Amarillo Ruso, and Celestino Tresgallo, from Miengo, distinguished with the award for the best tomato in Cantabria for his Delicias de la Huerta.
The double-awarded Emilio Medina is a young farmer who carries out his activity in Villalcázar de Sirga (Palencia), where he conserves and recovers hundreds of traditional varieties and tests new crosses. To do this, he resorts to dryland cultivation techniques, with the aim of obtaining fruits with more intense and defined flavors.
Regarding the Negro del Escorial, Medina has detailed that it is a selection obtained from traditional varieties that come from a tomato from Marchamalo (Guadalajara) crossed with some type of black tomato.
"All traditional varieties are open varieties that are cultivated in gardens, they may have some crossing and, by selecting them over the years, you can obtain different varieties, with new aromas and flavors," he pointed out.
His second recognition has come with the Ananas Noir, a tomato of French origin belonging to the group of pineapple tomatoes. Its most characteristic feature is that, when cut, it shows three shades —green, yellow, and red— that combine, and each one presents a distinct taste nuance. "The green parts offer sweeter notes, the red ones tend towards greater acidity, and the yellow ones are more balanced," he noted.
The mayor of Polanco, Rosa Díaz, who has been part of the jury of the contest, has conveyed her congratulations to Medina and the rest of the distinguished and has emphasized that "Polanco has once again become the capital of the ancient tomato and we have been able to verify the enormous interest that exists in recovering products that are part of our agricultural and gastronomic heritage."
This contest is part of the VIII National Ancient Tomato Fair, held on Saturday, August 22, and Sunday, August 23, focused on the conservation and enhancement of this agricultural heritage as one of its main axes.