Tomato Festival

Tomato Festival & How to Host a Tasting

It is often said that tomatoes the gateway "drug" to gardening and we'd like to offer that it can also serve as an entry to seed saving as well. Amaze your community by hosting a Tomato Festival and have folks bring in tomatoes to share.

Resources

How to Organize a Tomato Festival
Tomato Tasting Card
Tomato Envelop Labels for Tasting and Library
Words to Describe Tomatoes for Rating - DRAFT: This document has some rough notes.

Suggestions
1. Host a seed saving workshop on "super easy" plants right after the tomato tasting. Things that are not eaten can be saved and the folks taking the class will get lots of hands-on experience processing tomatoes. Bring lots of canning jars and labels. (See above "Tomato Envelop Label").
2. Cut the tomatoes right on the plate. It will be easier to clean up and there will be less chance of seeds being mixed if you are saving seeds at the end.
3. Leave at least a half, preferably a whole, tomato on each plate so people can see the form and size.
4. Write on the lip of the plate important information such as variety and determinate or indeterminate. If you have lots of microclimates then you may also want to put the area where it was grown on the lip of the plate.
5. Have lots of pencils for folks to write on the rating cards. The cards help folks decide what seeds they'd like to check out for next year.
6. Ask people to only bring open-pollinated tomato varieties.
7. Bring a compost bucket for the plates and any tomatoes you can't process, such as if someone brought a hybrid tomato.
8. Make sure you have plenty of volunteers to help cut tomatoes and to clean up afterward. Many hands make for light work. Warning: Remember to use nitrile gloves to protect anyone who may have latex allergies.
9. Have people wait until all of the tomatoes are cut before people are allowed to start sampling.
10. Before starting the sampling, give a little orientation to the reason you are doing the event, to your seed library's service, and to how to save tomatoes. It's good to have a jar that already has the mold growing on it for demonstration purposes.
11. Make resources on saving tomatoes, such as the "super easy" brochure available.

Richmond Grows' Tomato Festival with 25 varieties! Jars were present for hands-on seed saving of tomatoes.

Use a tomato rating card so that people know what they like and can look for those seeds next spring.

Tomatoganza - Napa County, California, USA

Napa County Seed Library hosts an annual fundraiser called Tomatoganza where farmers from local restaurants share their favorite tomatoes. The event is hosted at the COPIA Culinary Institute of America, the location of one of the Napa County Seed Libraries.

Heirloom Tomato Festival - Carroll County, Maryland, USA

The annual Heirloom Tomato Festival celebrates the flavor and diversity of heirloom tomatoes while promoting community seed saving. Guests are invited to sample a wide range of heirloom varieties and learn how to save seeds from them for future seasons. The event also features displays of prepared tomato-based recipes and baked goods (shown for inspiration only—no tasting or sales are permitted). As a small fundraiser, they offer tomato-themed recipe collections and a selection of merchandise, including T-shirts.

This festival is made possible through the dedication of the Carroll County Master Gardeners (CCMG) in Maryland. Each year, their team curates a collection of heirloom tomato seeds, starts the seedlings, and distributes plants to CCMG members to grow for the event. Extra seedlings are donated to their annual May Plant Sale, extending the reach of these treasured heirloom varieties throughout the community.