Tomato Day 2010 in Wisconsin

[Wi-sunflower]

Just a post to remind people our second Tomato Day will be Sunday Aug 29, 2010 from noon to 4 pm. Our farm is about 35 miles north of Milwaukee and 4 miles northeast of West Bend.

The plants are doing better than last year, but so are the weeds. I don't think we will be able to get things as cleaned up as we had it last year. But hopefully you will be able to at least find the plants if you decide to walk the fields.

We should have a whole lot more varieties ripe this year as we've had the heat we never got last year. Last year we were a bit disorganized, yet everyone seemed to have a good time. Except me. I was totally hyper all day. We hope to have tables for the various types of tomatoes like pink, yellow, cherry etc and have a sheet for judging which is liked best. Something like that anyway.

I hope some of my fellow TVers from Wisconsin are able to get here.

Carol

[Mischka]

Please bring your camera, Carol. I'd like to see some photos.

[Wi-sunflower]

Last year I had the camera out there. But I was runnig around like a chicken with my head cut off most of the day and ended up with only 2 pics that were mostly worthless.

I'll have to designate someone else to just burn up the batteries and memory cards that day.

i can say one thing about that day -- it will be a weedy mess.

I can't believe the time we've spent on weeding this year and we never seem to be making any progress. Between the rain and heat, it's weed heaven all over the farm.

i can also say we've lost a few varieties due to the excess rain. There are wet spots in that field that we never knew were 'wet spots' til this year.

But there should still be a whole lot of tomatoes for people to try.

Carol

[Wi-sunflower]

Well it's over for this year.

I don't think we had quite as many people as last year and I know not as many people picked tomatoes as last year. But last year there was hardly any tomatoes available in this area at this time. This year there is plenty. Also some of the varieties we had up for tasting were picked out right away so people found out they could come back again for PYO after this holiday weekend.

We had at least 2 other Tomatovillians visit. I was able to talk with Farmette and her hubby for a while as it had quieted down at that time. I'm afraid I don't remember the name of the other member as I was very busy when he came thru.

I had the camera out there but of course when things got going I was too busy to think about pics. Fortunately a friend from the Madison market who is a photographer came and hopefully will send me some pics. I did get a few late when we had a late flush of people come. When I have some time to edit the pics i'll post them.

About the tasting. We had 5 tables set up so I sorted the varieties the crew picked into color. Unfortunately I didn't give good directions as to what I wanted picked so there were way too many "reds" and many of them old standards like better boy and big beef. Some of my best bi-colors and rare tomatoes never made it to the tables.

The following are comments i heard.

On the red table, San Marzano Redorta got great reviews for a really "sweet" taste. Much more than for the regular San Marzano. German was liked for a really strong (asertive) "tomato" flavor.

On the Black Purple table, someone that has a friend that's been touting Cherokee Purple looked for that variety. Fortunately I had it there and when she tasted it she said "wow, her friend was right. Amaizing flavor". i also had some Bruno Russo F-2 there on that table and tasted it myself. Frankly it was the most tasteless on that table. Maybe in grocery stores in the winter it's OK, but for homegrown, there are plenty that are better.

On the pink table, several commented on Marianna's Peace. Roza Vetrov got a good comment too.

Trying to remember some others but sometimes too much was happening all at the same time. More when I have some time.

During a break I went to the back of the field to see if any of the Dwarf project plants were producing anything. Unfortunately what I found is disappointing for the varieties I have. The few fruit I found didn't match the descriptions, like Taz Chocolate was red. KPG was green tho and tasted OK but not great, tho I need another green to compare it with later.

Carol

[tam91]

Carol, I'm so sorry I didn't make it - I really wanted to. Hubby and I were both kinda sick that day. Rats. Maybe next year.

[Wi-sunflower]

Hey, no problem. I know you've had some health issues. It can be a bummer when you want to do something but you need to take care of yourself.

If you or any other TV member is in the area when we are around i would be more than happy to give you a tour. Just call or email me ahead of time.

Also, from now til Nov, no one is around on Wed or Sat -- markets.

Carol

[Farmette]

Carol:
My husband and I really enjoyed the visit...and here is a guy who would NOT eat a tomato (except on a pizza) when we got married 35+ years ago!
The amount of varieties you have is amazing and we both were happy to be able to taste so many of them. There are such differences, some striking and some so subtle. We especially enjoyed White Queen and Orange Nugget.
Thanks for having Tomato Day.
Chris

[tam91]

Sounds fun - or maybe we can make it to a market sometime. Thanks so much for the offer.