Tomatopalooza[tm] V - Event and Pictures

[carolyn137]

Great pictures, please keep them coming.

Any chance of IDing some of those in the pictures?

And where was the four legged Mischka in all of this crowd?

How I would have loved to have been there and you all know it. How I would love to be at any of the gatherings closest to me, but what is, is.

In the meantime I've got 2# of store bought tomatoes in the fridge, yes, in the fridge and don't tell me it will ruin the taste b'c there wasn't any before they were put there.

And tomorrow I'll get someone to bring in what I think are a couple of ripe ones on my Bloody Butcher, to see if they're all mini-beefsteaks or if the first two were a fluke.

Soon I expect to have some other ones ripe. What does soon mean? Well maybe mid to late August. After all, it has been quite rainy and cool with a few hot days in between and we all know that:

Patience is a virtue
Find it if you can
You'll find it in a woman
But seldom in a man.

No hard feelings guys, but what is, is.

[feldon30]

It was really a fantastic event and I was thrilled to be a part of it. Craig and Lee are consummate hosts and have really set a high bar for tomato tastings! There were ~125 attendees and over 180 tomato varieties represented, including the massive dwarf project table (actually 5 tables). I took a picture of every single dwarf and then lots of other photos (~140) and will post them soon.

Suze already mentioned my favorites from the dwarf project (a purple, a red, a green, and a gold).

Other tomatoes I liked were of course Cherokee Purple, also Stump of the World, German Heirloom (an unknown variety with astounding flavor), Coustralee (so sweet!), Goose Creek, and Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red. Little Lucky was a barnstormer for me. Totally different taste to me than Lucky Cross.

As Craig posted before, the event took place at Jimmy's incredible setup. Surrounded by old stone farm buildings, Jimmy's house includes a relaxing open-air architectural pavilion. The garden is scaled up to match the surrounding acres (which had just been baled). A massive iron pyramid was home to a half dozen varieties of gourds. Beans and cucumbers were on giant trellises. The asparagus beds looked fantastic (they were already ferned out at full height after a good harvest this spring). And of course the clogging was quite fun to watch. Here are some folks who got together to recreate clog folk dancing of 60 years ago and put on events all over. And the musicians were quite talented as well.

Having the music and clogging really did bump the level of the event up beyond the fantastic level it already is known for.

I'm looking forward to next year's event!

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Great pictures, please keep them coming.
Any chance of IDing some of those in the pictures?
And where was the four legged Mischka in all of this crowd?
----------------------------.

For your convenience.
The four legged Mischka was holding the camera?

dcarch

[feldon30]

I bulked up my post above.

[nctomatoman]

Let me take shot at IDing people from the long photo using the number referece in dcarch's post - I am sure I am missing some, so feel free to edit this.

Tomatovillians -

45 - Craig (Mischka)
50 - Rena (IMISSCOLO)
51 - daughter of Rena
44 - Suze
38 - Morgan (Feldon) - the tallest of allest!
41 - my Sue
33 - Jim (JimSC) and 28 - son Andrew
35 - sooby
26 - GManess
54 - Fried Okra (host Jimmy)
42, 46 - journalist/author Debbie Moose and her husband

Lee and I were both behind cameras


some of my spring time seedling customers - 7, 9, 52, 53, 31, 23, 24

[nctomatoman]

My quickie diary of the day - now that I've had some sleep (a very deep one....midnight to 8 AM), some good coffee, a blueberry apple Dutch baby and a run thru the NY Times Crossword (about 15% filled in)....

So, up early yesterday morning - start preparations at 7:30 AM, loading the tables into the truck, laying the tomatoes into 8 newspaper lined plastic mesh trays, transplanted some of the second round Dwarfs to bring for Lee and Tim, and Sue and I were off at 9:30.

Once we left highway 40 via the Efland exit, we knew that we were in for a treat - from highway to idyllic countryside, rolling fields, just the kind of venue that would be perfect. I was a steamy NC summer morning, already into the 80s - we arrived at Jimmy and Fred's house to find Lee setting up tables. What a setting - there was a wooden stage for the clogging, the surroundings well described by Morgan - and a spacious area under a large tree for setting up the tables.

After a quick strategy session, we settled on the locations - where to lay out the tomaotes, the dwarf project, name tag table, food tables. It took a good two hours to set out the tomatoes - Lee had the tomato ID tags all printed out. While we set up, it clouded over, and a distant thunderstorm sent refreshing breezes our way (which of course flapped our table cloths and sent plates and tomato tags flying!). With some distant rumbles of thunder, we had the combination of possible unwanted rain with the cooling, refreshing impact of the breeze....Lee started his photodocumentation...

Once set up, and after a quick wander through the superb gardens, people started arriving - Rena, then familiar faces from my seedlings sales, then Suze, Morgan and Craig - it was 1:30 and appeared that we may not be all that well attended or tomato-ed. But by 2 PM we were approaching 70 people, Lee and I introduced the event - and we armed ourselves with knives, took tables and started slicing, eating and talking....I manned the dwarf table, and with help from Rena and Suze, started working our way down with the real hard core tomatophiles who tasted and commented on everything. The main comment that really impressed me was from Jim - that we were running a project with no intervention from companies, government, etc- no thought of profit. We looked at that table of a rainbow of colors and sizes and recognized that some of these beauties would, in a few years, be in people's gardens. Very cool! And many of them were very positively received by the tasters. Patrina and Grubs will be less happy with the discipline of tasting and notes...but it was pure tomatoey chaos by that point, and all good!

I never did make it to the other tables. My wife Sue sliced at one, Lee at another - we had a great collection/selection, the tomatoes were pretty uniformly in great condition - there were some incorrect varieties and oddities (a NOT Opalka was the first I noted, as well as a NOT Aker's West Virginia - and Rock Angier produced a very odd green toned Dr Wyche's Yellow!). As people tasted, the food table got busy - there were salsas, salads, soups, white bread was getting slathered with Mayo and turned into BLTs - music started playing, the sun was out. It becomes all a blur after while.

And great conversations - getting to know Rena, Suze, Craig, Morgan were definitely a highlight of the day. We have a very special collection of people here at Tomatoville, united by a love of tomatoes of course, but it transcends that. There was a spirit that permeated the day - it lifted one up, the tomatoes became just symbol for a more grounded, natural way of life, perhaps something someone old fashioned - and this became more evident when the local musicians started playing and people started dancing. It is hard to describe, but my wife and I agreed that it was probably our best day of 2007. It was that good.

I have to give credit for this also to the incredible giving, open nature of Jimmy and Fred - they are very generous people, with their friendship, with allowing us to invade their little slice of heaven. Tomatopaloozas have all been successful, but we really raised the bar on this one. We are already talking about having it in Efland again next year.

What else? Still all a bit of a blur to me. We headed home at dusk - 9 PM, to our two dogs who acted as if they hadn't seen us in 5 years! We took a long walk, we crashed. We have the pictures to remember the event, but really it will be the way that the day touched each one of us in very personal, specific ways.

Just tomatoes? Hah!

[carolyn137]

Thanks Craig and more ID's from anyone, pretty please.

I knew Craig/Mischka b'c he's visited me and I knew Suze and Morgan from their pictures elsewhere and of course I knew your Sue and Lee as well, and Craig, I want an up to date picture of you. Now. As in ASAP.

We've known each other for about 18-19 years now and I've watched you change over the years. I want to see what you look like now. Thankfully there are no up to date pictures of me although that huge weight loss did help. And I'll be darned if I'm going to send to anyone the picture of me in my pink purple dotted bikini from the year________ and me in my fave dress, a long pique one splashed with huge flowers and backless and sideless, from the year______, but I still have that dress, the bikini long since excessed.

So where was THE DOG???? I love Mischka the dog b/c he's one of the most friendly dogs I've ever met.

Rena, glad to see what you look like . I shared some of your soap with a friend who didn't keep the label and now wants me to ID it. In your dreams. But I'll be in touch.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

So where was THE DOG???? I love Mischka the dog b/c he's one of the most friendly dogs I've ever met.

It was 75 when we got to Tomatopalooza because a cold front had come through and soaked everything. But by the middle of the afternoon, it was 85 degrees and very humid. That's just too hot for the thick-coated Mischka (the dog). Suze and I got to hang around with him though. He's really nice and always looking for attention and affection.

[nctomatoman]

Why does everyone take funny looking pics of me? Here are two I found...taken by an attendee named Brian and posted in his album.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...64951577fuhjgd

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...64951577kdSCxh

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Why does everyone take funny looking pics of me? Here are two I found...taken by an attendee named Brian and posted in his album.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...64951577fuhjgd

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...64951577kdSCxh

Funny looking? You say the camera lies?

I'll send you my critique privately.

Off hand I'd say you're aging gracefully.8)

[Fried Okra]

Good morning everybody - Fred and I have spent the morning letting the events of yesterday wash back over us. I've just skimmed the surface of the posts here, looked at a few pictures, and run through a few mental images. I just wanted to say now that I don't think there could possibly be a better day for me than yesterday. Surrounded by the best, realest tomatoes, heirloom music, heirloom dancing (both passed down by friends and families for generations) and good friends. It's an emotional experience for me, and I'm so honored to be a part of it.
One image: a young woman with a handful of tomatoes, with tomato juice running down her chin.
That's a very good day.

[shelleybean]

Thanks so much Jimmy and Fred! I love your gardens, especially your okra and lima beans. What a great place to live! Your hospitality is so appreciated! Bravo!!

[Rena]

AMAZING! I can say without a doubt I would travel for it next year. I really really loved meeting everyone. It is more then just knowing them from the forum, I can't explain it. True garden friends
A. It felt good to actually meet and talk tomato without fear that someone thinks you have gone off your meds. I loved visiting with Everyone. Suze's should of been the tomato queen (the lady knows tomatoes)! Morgan is a delight and was taking on the tomatoes like Julia Child took on wine . (Carolyn you would be proud)! Craig and his Wife are more lovely in person. Craig looks much younger in person then his photos. I was scared to even try to butcher his name, I waited for someone else to ask him how to say it LOL I also met Tim but did not have a chance to visit like I wanted (darn kids) Lee was very nice and helpful he did a great job! Mischka-? Mischka well he was back at the Hotel darn it, but the real Craig showed...I just kept laughing as I had an imagine of what I "thought" he looked like and then the Reality! Handsome, nice and funny guy! With a New York accent!
B. Tomatoes- WOW summertime everything was delish. Standouts Summertime Green and Summertime gold (yellow)
C. The Farm. I hope more pics go up. Beautiful. Landscaped simple but ornate I loved it. Ornamental vegetable garden. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Edited to add: I did not know I had met Shelleybean LOL I thought she as a "taster" Martha Your sorbet was a HUGE hit and everyone loved it. FANTASTIC

[dokutaaguriin]

Wow...what an event...so very inspiring!
Thanks to everyone who has posted,
Jeff

[nctomatoman]

So, Jeff - should be a good deal on plane tickets this far in advance!

We just need Lee and Jimmy to work out the date - but July 26 looks pretty good to me!

Same goes for other well-enticed TVillians!