Norcatt pictures, 2006
 

We came, we tasted, we judged. Oh, and we ate delicious tomato sorbet, brownies to die for, a delicious whipped cream dessert and potstickers. Don't you wish you had come too?
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Our littlest, and most discriminating tomato taster. Since she couldn't write, and was too busy eating to talk, we determined her winners by the amount eaten. Sorbet was first. Then Sungold, then Momotaro. Is she good, or what??
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Brad's Berkeley Tie Dye on top, and mine below. It must be the water...
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Annie's future tomato sauce
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Yeah, tomato porn. This is Brad's Beauty King.
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Bruce was kept very busy dishing out his sorbets!
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Here is the hardworking NORCATT group! From left to right is Angelique, Diana, Annie and kids, Bruce, Betsy and dh (sorry, I never got your name!) and Debra. Annie's DH took the pic, but very much did his part in tasting, cutting, and set-up.
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/dct45/AngelikeDianaAnnieandkidsBruceBe-1.jpg[/img]

It was a very enjoyable day, with wonderful company. Ah, people where I can talk tomatos for hours that [i]understand[/i] me! :arrow: I'm already looking forward to next year, as I redo my 'to grow' list yet again! Thanks everyone!
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Great Pictures!
 

I love the way the scoresheets look. Did they work well?

I'm sorry I missed it. Today was soccer season kick-off for my two older girls, and I couldn't miss my four year old's very first soccer game ever. Can you believe that I chose my kids over my tomatoes? (truthfully, my tomatoes seem to be between peaks and I have almost nothing ripe right now. Two weeks ago they were awesome).

I'm looking forward to seeing the tasting results to go with the pictures. :)

Great looking pix! Thanx for sharing.
What were some of the standout varieties you tasted?

Lee

Just a few quick pictures before I head out the door to taste another 75 or so tomatoes at Morningsun Herb Farm :shock: . Norcatt was a success but we need to get more people to this event!

We had decided on Davis as a happy medium between Sacramento and the S.F. Bay Area. Diana found us an excellent location! Thanks Diana.

Haven't calculated the ratings yet Lee, but the ones that stood out for me were: Sungold, Goose Creek, Diana's Berkeley Tie Dye, Super Italian Paste (probably the best), and Momotaro.

The spread (reds are behind me).
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Another shot. L to R Angelique, Annie, and Diana
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Our Littlest taster once again. She ate half the Sungolds by herself.
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Debra's Table. We were running out of space so we moved down to the benches.
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Great pictures of lots of great tomatoes. Kind of surprised about the turnout, though.

Where's Barb and her sis? And Bob to fry up the bacon?

Great photos. Adorable little girl. Lucious looking tomatoes. (There's always next year. Usually.)

Where's Brad??

Wow, you guys are fast! Here is a link to the pics my DH took of the event:

[url]http://picasaweb.google.com/launate/2006NORCATT[/url]

It was a blast and we definitely need to figure out a way to get more people to it. Too many tomatoes, too few tasters. For me, the standout tomatoes were (not in order):

Super Italian Paste
Diana's Berkeley Tie Dye (which was very distinct from Brad's or even my own)
Sungold
Goose Creek
Indian Stripe
Julia Child
Pork Chop
Jaune Flamme
Sleazy B
Betsy's diff to pronounce tomato (something Fruehe Liebe...)
Sugar Lump

It was a drive but it was really nice to be able to talk tomatoes to like-minded folks.

Cheers, Annie

that loser Bob was at his office trying to keep his very few, but incredibly demanding, clients happy-ish. He is there again today (Sunday) instead of being at his neighborhood block party. For some reason his clients expect him to actually deliver work.

It looks like a great place and I really wish I had been there. I kept thinking about what a good time I was missing. Looks like everybody else knocked themselves out putting together a nice feast.

Bummer.

It looks like you did an awesome job! I listen to a podcast of a garden show from California (Dave's ... I'd have to listen to it again to get the station, etc.), but they do an announcement thing weekly, and I've heard them announce Tomato Tasting Events a few times - maybe you could get some radio announcements, and horticultural group announcements, etc. Keep plugging away ... once the word gets out, you won't have enough to go around!

Looks like a wonderful event and some fantastic varieties. All those tomatoes for 10 people, yes, definitely have to get the word out. ;)

[quote=Kristy]I love the way the scoresheets look. Did they work well? [/quote]

They worked pretty well, some put an X on the line between the numbers to indicate a 3.5 or 4.5 so I'll include those votes as well.

Too bad you couldn't make it. As you can see you didn't need to bring any tomatoes!

Wow Annie, tell Nate 'Great Job' on all those pictures!

It was a great event, nice to see everyone there. Wish more could have made it.

Bruce, when do you think you'll have the scores posted?

Thanks.

GTG

Hi everyone,

I had a fantastic time. Our friends (Bev and Chuck) who attended with us were fascinated with our tomato addiction -- and even more amazed that we'd all come a distance to attend a "tomato" gathering!

So, where are we going to write down the list of seeds we would like to receive from each other? Should we start a new thread?

Thanks to both Bruce and Nate for the wonderful photos.

Anyone interested in a later-harvest gathering in ~ October? I'm guessing that with this season, I should have a much better showing by then.

BetsyLT

[quote=GTG]Bruce, when do you think you'll have the scores posted?[/quote]

It's ready to go. I just need to know who added the Black from Tula [i][b]at[/b][/i] the tasting. Diana or Annie or ?.

Also who added the Orange Russian 117? (Diana, I think)

Hi Bruce,

Both are Diana's. Thank you for sorting through all the data for us.

I just had a spam and egg sandwich for lunch today with your Carbon (it was super delicious--my kids devoured the rest of it) and Angelique's Greek Cucumber (Angelique, that cucumber was so crispy and sweet--yummers! and thank you!).

Cheers, Annie

Forgot to add--I have these seeds fermenting right now:

Beauty King
Indian Stripe
Julia Child
Orange Russian 117
Carbon

Also have saved seeds from:
Black Zebra
Green Giant
Big Rainbow
Kosovo
1884
Chianti Rose
Jaune Flamme

Let me know which ones you were all interested in. Pm me with address and I'll send them out when they're ready.

Cheers, Annie

We had 97 tomatoes entered at the tasting. Twelve varieties were entered twice for a total of 85 unique varieties.

The double entries have the grower’s name listed along with the variety to differentiate them.

Those varieties were:

Berkeley Tie Dye
Black from Tula
Black Zebra
Carbon
Green Giant
Nyagous
Odoriko Hybrid
Orange Russian 117
Paul Robeson
Russian 117
Sugar Lump
Sungold

Most of the tomatoes had all of their votes clustered in a narrow range of 1 or 2 rankings, sometimes 3. The exceptions were: Diana’s Paul Robeson and my Nyagous, they spanned 4 categories from 2 – 5.

If you see errors (spelling, wrong grower, missing variety, etc.) PM me and I'll check it and make the change.

Two varieties obviously weren't what they were supposed to be, my Ernesto and Diana's Burracker's Favorite. I have to say though, that (not) Burracker's was pretty darn tasty!

Here’s the list. The variety, it’s ranking, and the number of votes cast for it. (If anyone has an easy way to put a table into Tomatoville, I’d sure like to hear about it! :roll: )

[img]http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1600/1071394/11892725/182687542.jpg[/img] [img]http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1600/1071394/11892725/182695854.jpg[/img]
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Bruce,

That's terrific! Thanks for all your hard work on going through the score sheets.

What's interesting is to see how similar/same varieties fared between locales/climates/microclimates.

I've scanned Bruce's list and converted it (reconverted it really?) into an Excel spreadsheet.

I want to see if there's any correlation between fruit size/maturity/local climate.

Would it be helpful to supply climate information? I'm in Oakland, CA, Sunset zone 16/17. My Sungold cherries weren't as tasty as Bruce's.

GTG

that is some great work Bruce. It is interesting to see how all of the varieties we often discuss here stacked up this year.

I have these seeds fermenting now from leftover NORCATT tomatoes:

Brad's Black Heart
Berkeley Tie Dye Heart.

Let me know which ones you NORCATTers were interested in. PM me with your address and I'll send them out when they're ready. Also include in the list, anything else we discussed. My memory used to be like a steel trap, now it's more like a New Orleans levee.

I would like to get the Super Italian Paste Tomato too if someone is saving seeds from the extras. :wink:


Too bad you couldn't make it Bob, lots of great tomatoes. Maybe next year? Just tell your clients you have more important [i]things[/i] to do! :lol:

GTG, I could have saved you some work and e-mailed the spreadsheet. I have a version with the growers listed too if you want that. Interesting how much better your Sugar Lump did in the frosty East Bay. After doing well in two tastings I'll have to grow it next year.

How about re-naming that amazing pink-purple that wasn't really Burracker's Favorite -- "Burrackers Fauxvorite"? Or are we going to have people confusing it with Earl's Faux? Diana, was the "Burracker's (not) " yours? I'm afraid I lost track of who brought which ones.

I have the last of the Annie's Beauty Lottringa sitting waiting to go into a tomato salad. I have started to ferment the remaining Indian Stripe, but it wasn't very generous with seeds.

The Master Gardeners at our community garden are determined to pull out all of their tomato plants next Tuesday, so I was charged with getting all the ripe fruit off yesterday; I gave some to a program to feed the hungry, and I still have a bunch. Although some are a bit light on flavor, there are lots of fruit and a few varieties I'd not heard of before.

[quote=BetsyLT]How about re-naming that amazing pink-purple that wasn't really Burracker's Favorite -- "Burrackers Fauxvorite"? Or are we going to have people confusing it with Earl's Faux? [/quote]
:lol:

Or, How about Diana's Faux...or Diana? 8) BTW are there more tomatoes on the plant for seeds? That was a great tomato!

Hmmm, 'Diana's Faux' - what does that [i]really[/i] mean? lol. I checked my original seeds, and it came from the seedbank of Tomatomania yahoo group. So who knows what it is? I'll check that plant tomorrow, and see if I can't save seed for those that are interested.

I'm fermenting or already saved:
my Orange Russian 117
Annie's Black Zebra from Norcatt
Brad's Red Furry Boar
Brad's Berkeley Tie Dye
my Berkeley Tie Dye
Super Italian Paste
Pink Tie Dye
Mikado Violetta
Brad's Large Barred Boar

...and anything else I brought, I have, and more. I'm really bad. I don't think I have as many seeds as Annie though! lol. Post me with your addy if you want seed, Norcatt'rs!

I didn't bag blossom this year; blossoms just burned if I tried.

Bruce, thanks for all the work! I'm sure I'll be checking back often, as I do and redo my list for next year. :wink:

[quote=annietomatomad]Hi Bruce,

Both are Diana's. Thank you for sorting through all the data for us.

I just had a spam and egg sandwich for lunch today with your Carbon (it was super delicious--my kids devoured the rest of it) and Angelique's Greek Cucumber (Angelique, that cucumber was so crispy and sweet--yummers! and thank you!).

Cheers, Annie[/quote]

Hey Annie,

I am glad that you liked the cukes...DH just tooks a bunch to work. I have had lots. Too bad that I can't seem to get tomatoes right.

I hope that you made a fab gazpacho. I just made a batch of roasted veggie salsa with a mystery large pink tomato from NorCATT, Peppers (Fish, Corno de Toro, Sweet Cayenne, Mesilla), garlic, torpedo onions, fresh Mexican oregano, smoked salt and a very large pinch of ground chile de arbol. Delish.

Your scones were great. I had one Saturday night and the other for breakfast on Sunday.

Hi Bruce,

Thank you for all of the wonderful tomatoes and sungold sorbet. I absolutely loved it.

Diana,

Thank you for reserving the park. It was a great location. I think that this should be our permanent spot. I really liked a lot of your tomatoes, especially Mikado Violetta (sp???).

Debra,

Your tomatoes and brownies rocked. DH stole my "hidden" brownie. He want the recipe. (so do I).

[b]Debra[/b], I think we all agree that you have to share your brownie recipe. Nate also stole "my" last brownie! But to be fair, I had plenty already--however, I was the one pmsing :D

[b]Betsy[/b], among the tomatoes you pulled out at the Master Gardener's, you wouldn't happen to have one called Heart of Compassion, would you? I trialed it this year for them but I must have put it in a bad bed bec none of the toms I put in that bed did anything. I'm really bummed because I really like hearts so if you do happen to have those, would you send along some seeds for me to try again in a better spot?

[b]Bruce[/b], I thought Mikado was yours. Ignore that in the pm. I'll pm Diana about it instead.

[b]Diana[/b], I'll be sending you a pm. Thank you for booking the park--it was the perfect spot. Next year, let's try to get more people there!

[b]Angelique[/b]--you hv mail. :D

Cheers, Annie

Forgot to include this picture of my kids helping make pizza (guess where the sauce came from?) :arrow:

[img]http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b31/annietomatomad/IMG_5208-1.jpg[/img]

Cheers, Annie

Mmmm Pizza, my favorite meal.

[quote=Annie]I just had a spam and egg sandwich for lunch today with your Carbon [/quote]

That [i][b]is[/b][/i] a great tomato! I don't think I've had a bad one in the last two years of growing it.

[quote=Annie]Bruce, I thought Mikado was yours. Ignore that in the pm. I'll pm Diana about it instead. [/quote]

I think I have everything else on your list. I'll send them out as soon as all are dry.

Annie:

It was great to see you, Nathan and your kids there. Your little girl really seems to be shaping up to be a master tomato taster! Thanks also for sharing your pizza picture. That looks like fun.

Also, please pm me; I think you wanted some seeds, right?

Here's the brownie recipe.

**********************
192 Calorie Brownies (also known as "Killer Brownies" or "Erotic Brownies"*)

1/2 cup butter (no substitutes)
5 oz. unsweetened chocolate
4 eggs at room temperature (70 degrees F)
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate pieces
2 cups packed dark brown sugar (1 lb.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup pecan meats, broken

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt in double boiler butter and unsweetened chocolate. Cool in refrigerator about 15 to 20 minutes.

Beat eggs until light in color and foamy in texture. Beat in salt. Add gradually the sugar and vanilla and continue beating until well creamed.

Combine the cooled chocolate mixture with the egg-sugar mixture in a few swift strokes. _Do this by hand_. Before it becomes uniformly colored, fold in, again by hand, the flour. Before the flour is uniformly mixed in, gently stir in the semisweet chocolate pieces and pecans.

Bake in a greased 13-inch by 9-inch pan for about 25 minutes. Cool before cutting.

Makes 48 bars, about 192 calories each.

This recipe is an adaptation of Brownies Cockaigne from
The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker (Bobs-Merrill/Macmillan, 1975).

*Other people called them that. I called them "192 Calorie Brownies" because I dreamed them up while I was on a 1,000 calorie/day diet.
**********************

Bruce,

The Sun Gold sorbet was fantastic! It tasted like an orange push-up pop from an ice cream truck. Nice memories.

Angelique,

The trifle was really good! The cream cheese in the whipped cream was a tasty addition. I heard you had some great cucumbers to offer; I'm sorry I arrived too late and missed out on that.

Diana,

Thanks for getting the park set up and organized. It was a beautiful spread. Thank you also very much for the rides to and from the train station.

Betsy,

Good to see you and John there, and your friend Chuck and his wife (didn't catch her name). Thanks for bringing some of Brad's tomatoes. I am fermenting seeds from Berkeley Tie Dye and Pork Chop. I think Pork Chop is really interesting; it has a "spun sugar" sort of rough skin which makes it look even more like a real lemon drop, but its flavor is also lemony in a way (not a tart or citrus flavor, just aromatic). I really liked it. Thanks for showing me your Russian 117 that I gave you the plant for; yours is the real thing and is tasty. My "Russian 117" is a nice bicolor that might even be Burracker's Favorite, but I am not sure. (It has wispy foliage). Please pm me if you are interested in possible seed exchanges. I am not sure I'll be able to keep my plants alive long enough for a possible October tasting.

A great time. Thanks to all who were there and helped set it up.

GTG (Debra)

I gained 3 pounds just reading that Brownie recipe, GTG!

I have seeds saved from 'Diana's Faux' :arrow: for anyone that wants to chance it!

I'll be sending seed if your requested it, this week. I'm putting them in little zip locks, I'll let you put it in paper (I don't have trouble in plastic in this desert I live in though...lol)

Oh, and bad me, it's called 'Mikado Violettor', (not Mikado Violetta) an indet, traded by my east coast friend, luminare, who posts here, who traded/bought it from a Ukraine seed man. Although, when I first grew it from the seed she gave me and posted pics, the source said they were a bit different than his! Is it just my garden?!

Vermitt aka Diana