Successful party 2011 - pictures etc.
 

The 2011 party turned out great! Remy and Gary Orlowski were again gracious hosts on Grand Island! Weather was very good (just a little warm for a Norwegian) and a lot of people came. You who couldn't come were greatly missed!

There were a total of 74 varieties of tomatoes this year, and lots of good food to eat after having tasted tomatoes.

The award winners were:

Best tasting tomato: Goose Creek grown by Rob Kavanaugh.
Prettiest tomato: Don Juan grown by Julianna Griffin.
Ugliest tomato: Orange Minsk grown by Hilde Reineck.
Biggest tomato: Arkansas Marvel grown by Marcia Ritchie.
Smallest tomato: Gold Rush grown by Richard Price.
Tangiest tomato: Yummy Lebanese grown by Elizabeth d'Anjou
Sweetest tomato: Sungold grown by Tara Kolinsky
The Norm Brown award for the craziest tomato lover (usually the one who has travelled the furthest to be at the party) went to Rosalinda.

The 74 varieties were:


Absinthe
Abruznyi
Adventure
African Queen
Amish Yellow
Ananas Noir
Aunt Gertie’s Gold
Belmonte
Black Cherry
Box Car Willie
Brandywine
Carbon
Cherokee Bi-Color
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Green Grape
Dice’s Mystery Black/Black Dice
Don Juan
Dr Lyle
Earl’s Faux
Eckert Polish
Eva Purple Ball
Franchi Red Pear A and B
Galina
German Gold
Gold Rush
Goose Creek
Green Gage
Green Giant
Green Moldovan
Humph
Ildi
Juliet Grape
Kosovo
Malachite Box
Matt’s Wild Cherry
Mexico
Monkey’s ★★★
Moreton
Mortgage Lifter
Mystery Yellow
Not Cuore di bue
Not Virginia Sweets
Olga
Olive Hill
Opalka
Orange Minsk A and B
Orlovskie Rysaki
Pineapple
Polish Linguisa
Pork Chop A, B and C
Principe Borghese
Provenzano
Quartz Multiflora
Red Pear
Red Pear Gransasso
Remy Rouge
Rideau Sweet
Rinaldo
Snow White
Steve’s Pink
Steve’s Red
Striped Roman
Stump of the world A, B and C
Sungold
Sunsugar
Tim’s Black Ruffles
Top Sirloin
Tlacolula Ribbed
Tom’s Yellow Wonder A and B
Unknown Black
Utyonok
Wapsipinicon Peach
Wes
Yummy Lebanese

I tried to upload pictures to tomatoville, but it kept asking for an url, so I signed up for flickr. If everything works there would be pictures of all the varieties and of people attending if you follow this link:

[URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66884676@N04/sets/7215581101/with/6087057729/7627409"]http://www.flickr.com/photos/66884676@N04/sets/72157627409581101/[/URL]

The copyright watermark is irritating in the picture, and I started with that after someone stole tomato pictures to put on their commercial website. I still don't like it though. This year I used flash for the first time, and of some reason some images are out of focus. I have to work with that!

Zana, we missed you and your Armenian baklava so much! Hope you are recovering fast from the migraine!!!

Hilde

Would it be acceptable to call that tomato Monkey Arse? :lol:

Pomona, Tara and and Sheryl, I tried not to post pictures of children. I took some though, and if you want me to send you pictures, tell me!

Thanks for taking all those pics Hilde! I only got a few on my camera as usual.
Remy

A few photos from Sheryl and me.
[IMG]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h234/Remyo_2006/Buffalo%20Niagara%20Tomato%20Tastefest%202009/2011%20Buffalo%20Niagara%20Tomato%20TasteFest/P1011247.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h234/Remyo_2006/Buffalo%20Niagara%20Tomato%20Tastefest%202009/2011%20Buffalo%20Niagara%20Tomato%20TasteFest/P1011250.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h234/Remyo_2006/Buffalo%20Niagara%20Tomato%20Tastefest%202009/2011%20Buffalo%20Niagara%20Tomato%20TasteFest/P1011246.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h234/Remyo_2006/Buffalo%20Niagara%20Tomato%20Tastefest%202009/2011%20Buffalo%20Niagara%20Tomato%20TasteFest/P1011253.jpg[/IMG]

I like that picture of Julianna and Dwayne, especially the look on Julianna's face where she tries to decide which ones she likes!

[QUOTE=Hilde;230996]The 2011 party turned out great! Remy and Gary Orlowski were again gracious hosts on Grand Island! Weather was very good (just a little warm for a Norwegian) and a lot of people came. You who couldn't come were greatly missed!
[COLOR="red"]I was packed and ready to go...if I could...but could barely stand up yesterday, let alone drive or walk. Was thinking about you crazy materheads all day! Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh[/COLOR]

There were a total of 74 varieties of tomatoes this year, and lots of good food to eat after having tasted tomatoes. [COLOR="Red"]Oh man...now I'm drooling...sighhhhhhhhh.[/COLOR]

The award winners were:

Best tasting tomato: Goose Creek grown by Rob Kavanaugh.
Prettiest tomato: Don Juan grown by Julianna Griffin.
Ugliest tomato: Orange Minsk grown by Hilde Reineck.
Biggest tomato: Arkansas Marvel grown by Marcia Ritchie.
Smallest tomato: Gold Rush grown by Richard Price.
Tangiest tomato: Yummy Lebanese grown by Elizabeth d'Anjou
Sweetest tomato: Sungold grown by Tara Kolinsky
The Norm Brown award for the craziest tomato lover (usually the one who has travelled the furthest to be at the party) went to Rosalinda.
[COLOR="red"]Glad to see some new additions to the "usual suspects"! LOL From where did you travel, Rosalinda? Hilde, that is one seriously butt ugly tomato![/COLOR]


The copyright watermark is irritating in the picture, and I started with that after someone stole tomato pictures to put on their commercial website. I still don't like it though. This year I used flash for the first time, and of some reason some images are out of focus. I have to work with that! [COLOR="red"]Great pics of the maters, Hilde, as usual. I see you haven't slowed down with your guerrilla camera pics of unsuspecting people...LOL ;) [/COLOR]

Zana, we missed you and your Armenian baklava so much! Hope you are recovering fast from the migraine!!! [COLOR="red"]Thanks, Hilde. I was so bummed yesterday not going. First one I've missed....sighhhh...:cry::bummer::(:cry: Guess what I had for breakfast? One piece. Sighhhhh....going to have to give allot of it away, since you really can't freeze it after it has been baked - it loses the flakiness.....and it was a huge pan. Figured I would have enough to send some home with those that wanted it....so made about twice what I did last year. But since its not gluten free, I can't indulge without paying for it. So now I have to make up care packages....:twisted::P The migraine is a bit better this morning...seems to come in waves with the change in barometric pressure. I've managed to stay upright longer already this morning than all day yesterday - and got productive posting recipes on TV. Hilde, next time I'm in your neck of the woods, I'll try to have enough time to teach you how to make the Baklava...okay?[/COLOR]

Hilde[/QUOTE]

Wish I had been there....as usual, looks like it was a wonderful experience for the usual suspects and all the new comers. And also looked like you had quite a few new varieties to sample.

Hope you didn't get lost on the way there...or with any detours to go shopping or going home, Julianna, Duane and Zabby. And I hope you make your train on time, Zabby.

Nicky, maybe we can get together here...will send a pm.

[B]And finally, Remy....the hostess with the mostest![/B] You and your extended family are incredibly generous to allow all of us materheads to descend upon your family's cottage in Grand Island every year. I know you spend countless hours in advance prepping for the party. And have also extended accommodations to many of us over the years. Brava, my friend. You are the best. There should be an award for spreading the joy of growing tomatoes....and your name should be on it. I have a feeling there are allot of people we could nominate for that kind of award, but you've got my vote.

Zana
~ who sadly had to bail out on attending the party of the year :cry:

Great looking event! Glad it went so well!

Lee

Excellent photos and a very nice event. It looks like lots of fun, a wide variety of tomatoes to taste and great food (and weather).

[B]Goose Creek[/B] - - the taste test Winner!!!

You guys have EXCELLENT taste! Congrats.:yes::yes::yes:

Raybo:D

Zana, I was so disappointed that I couldn't tell you that a tomatoaddict we love down in Ohio told me to take lots of pictures!:lol:

And about care packages: We in the state of New York are really in need of that now that Irene is over us! :panic: Did you know that I hadn't eaten before coming to the party so I would be able to eat more Armenian baklava? And you made double what you made last year? I'll send a PM about that baklava cooking class! We should probably make a video of the process and put it on You Tube! ;)

Ray, why didn't you come back to your old hunting grounds for the party? We would have loved to have you!

Thanks Mark, thanks Lee!

Hilde,

If there was a way to send you the care package I would. But the HS won't let anybody mail food of any kind across the border. And I'm not sure it would survive the handling. LOL I'll make sure to make some for you and bring it the next time I'm coming down for some retail therapy. ;)

Zana

ps ~ Tomatoaddict is a naughty girl! LOL at least I wasn't in the line of fire of your camera lense this year. LOL I don't think you'd have been able to publish any pic of me anyway since I might have been waving a certain finger at you in retaliation....:p ;)

Zana, I was joking, but barely, you know I love that baklava!
I took at picture of you showing off your tongue at the first party, I can always reuse that year after year... ;)

Hilde

Thank you all for making us feel so welcome! Remy, you are a fantastic hostess! Russ & I had a great time at our 1st tomato tasting! I think it will be a yearly tradition now! I will post some pics tomorrow... going to rest now - lots of cross border shopping (Russ is a fashion plate!!!).
Cheers,
Nicky

Hi All,
I've been knee deep in tomatoes all day! I'll have to make a list of all the ones I saved seeds from.

Zana,
We did miss you! The Octoberfest cups you left last year we used. So you were there in spirit. :)

Ray,
We have had a great list of best winners at our party - Earl's Faux, Stump of the World, Indian Stripe, Henderson's Winsall, and now of course Goose Creek. And yes, if you are ever visiting your parents at the same time as the party you know you must attend.

Nicky,
I'm so glad you and Russ came! I do hope you hope you make a yearly event :).
Remy

Remy,

Glad to hear you had another very successful party!:yes:

Thanks for the invite - - perhaps next year I can work the travel schedule to attend.

BTW, what was the runner-up to Goose Creek?

Raybo:D:D

Ciao all-

Cute photo of Duane and me, Hilde. That's exactly what I was doing - me in scientific pondering mode. I had to go back a few times to narrow down my choices for a few categories.

Zana, Hilde and I talked about getting together before the holidays to do a Norwegian baking class. We could add Italian and Armenian to that - wouldn't that be fun?

Duane, Zabby, and I did very well on Sunday. I'd wanted to go to Mass at St. Steven's, but that was the only thing that didn't fit into our plans. We got Zabby onto the train with time to spare in spite of Front Street still being barracaded for Buskerfest. We also hit City Hall to pay our respects to Jack Layton in the book of condolences. That was very emotional.

I'm very relieved that Irene spared New York. That would have hit the entire country very hard, not just the New Yorkers themselves. I pray for those in New Jersey, New England, and the Carolinas who lost loved ones and property.

My beans grew while I was gone and so did the cucumbers. They just won't quit! I'm grateful for the harvests, but I'll be very busy this week managing the canning.

Mario Le Mew (our aging 17 year old cat) is doing fine. He's still at the vet, but we pick him up at 3pm. It's great to travel, but we miss our furry kids so much when we're away.

Remy, I found a kitchen mat/rug thing at Target. It has been on my "wish list" for quite some time - to take the pressure off hours of standing while canning. I mention it because it has tomatoes on it and says "Fresh Tomatoes" like one of those antique wooden boxes we talked about yesterday. It's also over-sized, so I'll be much more comfortable from here on out, I think. We hit Wegman's and bought them out of dairy as usual. Russ and Nicky, you really ought to consider that - prices are more than 50% cheaper for things like milk, butter, and cheese. I told Zabby that I use my Wegman's loyalty card more than my Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum card!

Thanks so much to everyone for their wonderful conversation. Pomona, I'd volunteer to watch your daughter at a moment's notice if you were closer! She's precious!

Hugs and blessings to all of you,
Julianna, Duane, and Zabby

Ray,
Votes were all over the place this year. There were some for Stump of the World, Humph, Eva Purple Ball, etc. oh and someone even voted for Red Pear?!

Julianna,
That cooking class is a great idea. Hilde has a perfect kitchen for doing that stuff too.
I'm glad you found a good mat at Target! I'll have to go check it out. Also good that you got stocked up at Wegmans.
I've got a ton of beans out there too. I need to get out there and get picking. Oh, don't forget to check if I already gave you the Jembo Polish beans or not.
Remy

If you need tasters for your baking class I am available!!!

Put some photos up on flickr - although no where near Hilde quality!!! :DEnjoy

[URL]http://www.flickr.com/photos/66222562@N06/sets/72157627548774804/[/URL]

[QUOTE=nicky;231272]Put some photos up on flickr - although no where near Hilde quality!!! :DEnjoy

[URL]http://www.flickr.com/photos/66222562@N06/sets/72157627548774804/[/URL][/QUOTE]

Nice photos! That Orange Minsk tomato caught my eye. I might have to add that to my "to grow list".

Nicky,
Very nice photos!:yes:
I'm sure Hilde will let you know when she plans to hold the cooking class.

Mark,
I'm very happy with it! It has been productive and tastes good too.
Remy

Nice photos Nicky, and it was nice to meet you at the party!

I think it might be too much to do both Armenian and Norwegian the same day, Julianna, as the things we were going to make takes some time. Zana has suggested doing a few other Armenian dishes as well and that sounds like a lot of fun. How about we have two cooking classes? One Armenian and one Norwegian? Like Remy said, my kitchen is perfect for that kind of thing and getting together to cook should be a lot of fun!

What do you think?

Hilde

Whatever you decide. I'm easy either way. But I'm sure there are more than enough recipes of each that we could fill up a class or two. If we did it as a full weekend, we could possible start on a Friday night, and go thru Sat and then finish off on Sunday before heading north of the border
. If we start Friday night, we could do the grocery shop for most items then, and bring the rest with us too?

Up to you all. LOL

So who we talking for the class - Hilde, Remy, Julianna, Nicky and moi? Anybody else?

And Hilde, its only wheat gluten I have the intolerance to...and I've been known to make a choice whether to "pay" for eating something or not...like taste testing the baklava. But I'll try to get my hands on some of the gluten free phyllo that is supposed to be made in TO. I've only heard about it, but am willing to try it ahead of time to see how well it works. So don't worry on my behalf about the gluten issues for any of your dishes.

Ciao all-

Great brainstorming on the cooking class(es) thing. Hilde has a good point about how long these "Old World" things can take. I can vouch for that in Italian baking for sure. Zana, you also have a valid point of maybe stretching the classes into a 2-day thing but 1 weekend. I like that idea also. Friday night probably won't work for me in terms of the actual baking, but certainly shopping for items for Saturday would work fine. I'm definitely a morning person and I turn into a pumpkin in the evening - my brain actually clocks out. Baking on Saturday and Sunday sounds like it might work from my end. Nicky, it would be so fun to have you come as well, but being away from your kids that long - that can be hard if they're little. Let me know what you all think of this input.

Today, oh so surprisingly, I'm sure, for those of you who know me - I'm prepping vegetables for canning this weekend and packaging seeds.

PS Mario's just fine. In fact, he's better than he has been in some time. I think he was hiding his symptoms from everyone. His kidney values dropped remarkably, so he's got "manageable kidney disease" which could result in a few more years of happy cat life.

Julianna,
Glad to hear that Mario is going to be OK!
Whenever everyone gets together, I will do my best to be there too.

Nicky,
BTW did you go to Pizza ★★★★★★★★? It was featured on the TV show Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives last night, and it made me remember us talking about it at the party.
Oh and remember the spring break story? Here's the video for you. It is the blonde guy playing the keyboards.
[URL]http://youtu.be/zB1Q-PfUvN0[/URL]
Remy

AHHH!!! Look at all the 80's hair! Hooters will get you everywhere :lol:

We didn't get to Pizza ★★★★★★★★ - that's on the list for next time. We actually went to the 'stone oven pizza' (or something similar) on the main street of the island. It was really good, although I'm not sure where Russ put the food, as I think he had about 10 plates full at the party!

Thank you again for everything!

Oh and Julianna - I'm happy to hear about Mario too! :D

I will PM all of you and then hopefully we can agree on a time to get together!

Julianna, I love the name Mario Le Mew! Very funny! I am happy he is doing better!

Hilde

Glad to hear that Mario is doing well....and love his name too.

I replied to all on the pm...with alternate dates...sorry...but Oktoberfest is a set booked time for me annually.

Whenever we do this, its going to be a blast!

Ciao all-

A bit of sad news to share. Mario Le Mew passed away on Monday morning. We knew his time was nearing, but it's still been tough on all of us to lose him. He was very tired and ready to go and I'm at peace knowing we did everything we could to make his last days as comfortable as possible.

After we returned from the party, he was doing very well for several weeks. He started declining rapidly in October and that's when we knew he wasn't going to be with us for much longer. He had a really good summer, spent lots of time outside rubbing his face on the catnip, and slowly surveying his backyard territory. I'm so thankful that he had as much freedom as he did in his life.

This Halloween photo was taken on one of his last really good days.

[IMG]http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f60/Sorellina66/Carpet%20Tigers%202011/MarioasCatula103111.jpg[/IMG]