This is on my news page, but I suspect not everyone reads it...so today's blog is the current tomato news!

Sue and I attended the first Tomato Dinner at Zely and Ritz this past week - see the menu and schedule here.  I will definitely be at the dinner with my daughter Sara on August 3....and not available (out of town) for the July 14 dinner.  We are not sure about July 20 or 26.

This Sunday - July 10, I will be back on the radio talking with Niki Jabbour about tomatoes - 10:30 - 11 EST - you can listen live at the link here.  We will be focusing on tomato care/troubleshooting, and progress on the season.

Then....I will be participating at A Southern Season cooking school on this coming Tuesday evening, July 12, at 6 PM - info can be found here.  Marilyn at the school tells me there are still open spots.  They are great fun, the facility there is incredible - and the food will be wonderful!  People have a chance to hear about what Alex (Peregrine Farms) and I are up to and have plenty of opportunities to ask questions.  I expect to bring some tomatoes from my garden with me to discuss and taste as well!  Please go to the link and sign up....hope to see you there!

Finally, I will be in Decorah Iowa speaking at the annual Seed Savers Exchange campout - info can be found here.  I will be speaking on some of the "new" heirlooms I've been fortunate enough to either name, distribute, discover or help create!  These can be thought of as "tomorrow's heirlooms" - the ones our grand kids will consider to be heirlooms!

Following that, we have Tomatopalooza 8, on Saturday July 23!  Information can be found here.

And in between and after these activities, I hope to keep tending the garden, saving seed, and hopefully, canning as many quarts as we can manage!

Already counting the weeks and days until our two weeks at Ocracoke Island in October!

Just a reminder that you can now follow me on Twitter -  @nctomatoman 

Saturday July 23, at Apex Community Park, between 1-4 PM.  Information on registration, the event, and directions can be found here.  

Most important is that we need people to register (see the link for instructions on what to do and what info to provide).  We also need tomatoes!  There is no charge to attend, but we can't stress the importance of bringing tomatoes to taste!  Also critical is for you to be as certain as possible of attending when you register - there is a limit on how many people can register based upon the capacity of the site....last year we had to deny some people registration....yet, whether due to the weather or the state of tomatoes,  a large percentage of those who registered didn't attend.   Again, instructions can be found at the Tomatopalooza website link provided at the end of the first paragraph.

If you are a seedling customer of mine, you will certainly have the opportunity to attend.  If by chance to go to register and find we are over capacity, please email me and I will ensure you will be added to the attendee list.

We also have Tomatopalooza T shirts in limited quantities, sizes and colors (we will have about 90 shirts total).  We will have medium (yellow, sand, light blue and pale green), large (yellow, light blue, sand, and orchid), extra large (light blue and pale green), and XXL (pale green).  The shirts are 20.00 each - please contact me by email ([email protected]) if you are interested.  We cannot sell them at the event, but you can pay in advance and we will have them there for you. 

First - people have been asking for the results of the three Tomatopalooza contests....here are the results.

Largest Tomato:  Georgia Streak  1.8 lbs  (Ira from Southern Seed Exchange)

 Best Tasting:  Black Cherry

 Most Unusual: Garden Peach

I've asked Lori to see if she can provide a flavor top 10 list, so we can see what came close - if she has it available, I will post it in a future blog.

So, here are the next set of video clips - these are the three introductory "speeches" we gave to ensure everyone was oriented to the process this year (it was quite a bit different from previous years) - and also to give the tomato slicers time to slice!



So, in order of our "speeches" - starting with long-winded me:

And here is Lee...

And here is Lori.

This will give you all an idea on how we organized the event this year....and an idea on why it sent so smoothly!  (lots of planning up front...)