Sunday morning my husband and I were discussing our plans for the day. I wanted to go to the Verrill Farm Corn and Tomato Festival. My husband looks over at our kitchen counter and says, "Don't you have enough tomatoes?". He couldn't fathom why I would want to go to spend an hour eating tomatoes when I could be home eating tomatoes.
Ha! It was too late to talk me out of it. I already planned to meet some friends there. He didn't have to come, but since it is a CORN and tomato festival he did. He isn't into tomatoes, but he does love corn.
Verrill Farm puts out a spread of about 30 varieties of tomatoes so you can taste test them all and see which ones you want to buy. They sell the tomatoes and also tomato starts in the spring. The lines tend to be a bit long to really stand at the table and just taste. I tend to taste some at the table and then put a few varieties on my plate to taste all at once. I stand back a bit so people can go by me. Most people just seem to want to load up their plates, but I want to know which ones I was tasting.
I wan't very impressed with the two black tomatoes they had, Carbon and Black Prince. I found them rather tasteless. Most of the tomatoes tasted just fine, like summer tomatoes should, but one stood out. I really liked Pineapple, but I just can't see growing it in my garden. If I had a nice sunny field like they do I could get away with it, but my garden is shoved between trees. Not only do the tree roots compete with my plants, but most of the beds are partially shaded by them during certain times of the day. I don't get full sun in my beds except my lowest bed. This is a 90 day tomato so a very late season one. I think I'll skip it.
Ah well. I have to look past the huge ungrowable tomatoes and find a nice tomato variety that I CAN grow next year. Moskvich was nice, tasty and sweet. It is a 5 oz tomato from eastern Siberia. I tend to do better with the Siberian tomatoes than with the typical American heirlooms. This one should be able to handle some cold weather and is typical for tomatoes that grow well here, it is an early tomato. I'll have to keep this one in mind for next year.
There is more at the festival than just tomatoes. I did eat corn. They also have a buffet of things cooked from either tomatoes, corn or both. Yum. We went over lunch time so we would be hungry. The hunger didn't last long though. With temperatures hovering around 90 and with the air very humid, my appetite disappeared very quickly. Hopefully next year it will be just a tad cooler so I can stick around longer.
How lovely Daphne, I wish I could have joined you. Great post
ReplyDeleteGuess what I had for lunch - tomatoes! I wonder if I can O.D. tomatoes? I made a Greek style cucumber and tomato salad with Feta cheese, delicious.
xoxo Tyra
The festival looks like it was a lot of fun. You and I share alot of the same garden challenges - and like you - I am confined to quicker maturing/cool tolerant varieties if I am going to have any chance of getting a crop in each year.
ReplyDeleteYum, what fun, Daphne! And I love the idea of lunch from tomato and corn dishes. Talk about inspiring! thanks for a great post.
ReplyDeleteAn opportunity to test 30 different varieties would be great! I can understand why the siberian tomatoes would work well in your area, because it's relatively cool where you live.
ReplyDeleteWow! I'd give just about anything to be able to taste test varieties before I plant them. Of course if they served both corn and tomatoes, I'd have to go for the corn.
ReplyDeleteTyra, I hope you can't OD on tomatoes I eat them all the time. I keep a big plate of them washed on my counter and any time I go by I eat them then too. I think tonight I'll have the typical tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad. Yum!
ReplyDeletekitsapFG, Well my Market Miracle tomatoes did great in my icky weather. If late blight hadn't come through I think each plant might have produced about 50-80 lbs of fruit. Which is dang good around here. Some of these tomatoes might still ripen, but maybe not.
Engineeredgarden, I love getting to try them all out. I hope next year they have some new kids of tomatoes to try. I'll have to look at their list in the spring to see when it comes out.
Annie's Granny, it is a nice change of pace to try them first. Some I can try from the farmers' market, but it isn't as fun as a festival. I never seem to go a year without trying more tomatoes. Next year I figure I need 2 sungold, 1 chocolate cherry, 2 Market Miracle and hmm some new ones I'll have to measure out the beds and see how many I can grow. But corn over tomatoes? I guess after canning them for weeks you are tired of them by now. They only had a handful of varieties of corn, so I didn't taste them all. I tried a couple of them though. The cooked treats were the yummiest. I really liked the corn tart.
Looks like a great festival !
ReplyDeleteI haven’t been overly impressed with my Black either, Black Krim in my case. Lovely to look at but not strong on taste. I’ve only had 2 so far. Maybe the ones coming up will be tastier ...
It must be fun to shop for tomatoes by TASTE. Like wine, they must all have their subtleties and flavors - wonder if my palatte would be able to distinguish. Sounds like a fun event!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your outing, looks like a great festival. I wonder what the secret is to grow such nice tomatoes this year, propane heaters, hehe. All the tomatoes looks so good and the baskets too.
ReplyDeleteLooks like such a lovely day out, I couldn't think of a more fun thing to do (ok I can but tomato tasting is just such a cool idea). I am growing pineapple tomatoes in the winter tomato experiment, the plants are growing large, in pots, indoor, but no flowers yet. I await the fine taste you mentioned!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to sample tomatoes to see what you would like to grow next season. I have decided I won't bother to grow 'Black Russian' again, it too, is rather tasteless and is a dark red, not the purple/black color shown on the label. Now the cherry 'Sunsugar' is worth planting again.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful opportunity to taste different varieties. I've never been very keen on the black varieties I've tasted. The Pineapple (called Ananas here in France) are wonderful - sweet, almost like a fruit and they make a lovely salad. They grow very well here in our Mediterranean climate, though, so I'm afraid you're probably right that they wouldn't do so well where you are.
ReplyDeleteFabulous photos - it looks amazing. I love the interest in growing different varieties for taste - it's a really exciting time for the home grower.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right to be practical about what can be grown outdoors and some great tips here.
I'd love to do that. It might lead to some new varieties. Maybe I'll host a tasting party for the gardeners in the area. . .
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun time.
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