The first annual MAGTAG was a Success!
 

I couldn't sleep so I figured I would give a report :)

What a success today was. Cecilia and myself were worried about how things might go since but as I said to her the other day; people that want to be here do not need to be entertained; how true that was. Everyone brought their tomatoes and their enthusiam and it made for a great day.

Approximately 30 people showed up with about 82 unique variaties of tomatoes. It was amazing how few duplicates there were and although everyone was very unique all were strangely similar at the same time :D

The tasting ending with Black Cherry as the winner (mine woo hoo!) and Olena Ukrainian as a close second. Personally I really liked Kosovo and was given one as a gift at the end of the day. I was suprised Dr. Carolyn Pink didn't do better but it was within the top 10 (mine woo hoo!)

Bluekat had the bigest tomato that was infact a Ulena Ukranian weighing 2 pounds and 6 and a quarter ounces. All of Bluekats tomatoes were large and it was a sight to see. I have yet to grow a tomato over 2 pounds. :cry:

Trudi came with what i figure is some kind of coupon holder but instead it was filled with individually wrapped and labled seeds for the taking. The vast majority of them seem like they were russian or from formerly russian states. I have all of them :D

Dunkel, I discovered doesn't eat tomatoes yet grows and preserves a large and unique collection of WV heirlooms. He came with a friend of equal enthusiasm. He gave me seeds of a yellow heart shaped that I will try and cross with Cherokee Green next year. One of his most interesting tomatoes was Berkley Tye Dye and I hope he gives me some seeds for that one :wink:

Mary (manure_queen) brought speckled roman which I thought was a very unique variety. I should have grabbed one of those for seed.

Also, we had a tip jar to offset the expense of renting the pavillion and though I didn't expect that it would actually work it did indeed and we came out $26 ahead. Thanks to all.

Anyway, it was a great time and you can be sure we will do this again next year.

Greg

Woo Hoo Greg!

Glad all went well. Slept earlier so I'm
up now. Sorry I could not make it, but
along with my commitments, I also had
a tooth yanked at 9 AM so would not have
been up to tasting anyway.

Glad your enjoying Black Cherry as its'
become our favorite little one too. Fruity
sweet but fully flavored. Like eating a grape.

Looking forward to more reviews....JJ61

Waah! Waah! Waah! Sob!

It was so nice to meet everyone!!!

Thank you everyone for your hospitality.

I'd love the recipe for the pasta salad with tuna and green olives. Whoever made it, would you be willing to share? I didn't get a chance to eat much of anything else due to the fact that traffic made me very late, but what I had was great.

Thanks again! And I'll be there next year (more prepared).

What Fun! Thanks to Cecilia and Greg for all their hard work!! Tasting all those varieties and comparing notes with everyone was a real treat. It's nice to talk tomato without any eye-rolling nearby. LOL

Thanks to Trudi for the wintersowing lesson(and seeds). It really gave me confidence to give it a try.

Carolyn should share in my largest tomato win; I believe she was instrumental in bringing Olena Ukrainian to the states!

It finally rained here last night and today lots of my maters are split. No surprise but I didn't think it would happen so fast :?

See everyone next year - or sooner!
-Kim

A good time had by all, indeed! I just got home. I will post some pics from the event tomorrow. I had a great time and would also like to thank Greg and Cecilia for getting the ball rolling. Good people, good food, good beer (MAGTAG brews by Greg were very good), and a good time.

We had a ball!

It really was a great delight to meet everyone and sit and talk and eat and drink--oh my, it was almost too much. Any gathering with three types of excellent brownies is gonna blow my mind and waist, lol!

I don't remember who made the tomato and apple pie but that was very different, I never had anything like that before and I have to say it was quite good, as were the salads, the salsas, the scalloped toms and the brews. The brews were really quite impressive--slurp and burp! YUM! It was ALL yum! (and that was the biggest box of bacon I have ever seen in my life)

I was very impressed with the amount and variety of toms that were brought to the tables, not too many repeats at all. The judging was left up to individuals to try some or all and the "ballot box" made it possible to do so and vote anonymously--it was comfy and casual and a very pleasant way to do the ratings.

I had my seeds in clear vinyl shoe holders that I bought at the dollar store--they're the type with "pockets" and you hang them inside the closet door. Because of the volume of seed varieties that I have "ready to go", keeping them in a visually clear sorting system---such as these vinyl shoe pockets--makes it a lot easier for me to organize them all. The seed packet labels I make with a graphics program--I use Print Master--it's simple to use and I can print out labels anytime I need them.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about Winter Sowing, I hope that some of you will try the method. I like it as it keeps everything outside. I have cats that own the windowsills here, and we live in a small 40' x 40' cottage so there's no room for a light set-up--for me WS is very practical.

Steve and I fell in love with the Inner Harbor in Balto--such a wonderous place. On the drive back we talked about that for our next long vacation, we'd like to visit Baltimore.

We had a wonderful time in Maryland at MAGTAG and we look forward to joining you again next year.

Hugs to all!

Trudi and Steve

Pictures anyone?

My home internet connection has been down for a while (@!?# Comcast!), so I couldn't post until now. I'm back at work - I took Monday off to recover and get some housecleaning done. I could tell that MAGTAG 2006 was a big success because of all the people who mentioned "next year" in their conversations with me!

I had also taken a vacation day Friday, and spent most of that afternoon microwaving bacon for the BLT bar. I cooked up five pounds of the stuff! The house smelled great that evening.

Like Greg, I was all wound up on Saturday night and couldn't sleep. Thinking that it would work better than counting sheep, I started counting all the people that I remember seeing at MAGTAG, and came up with 34. There may have been more than that; since I was running around playing hostess with the mostest, I might not have seen some folks.

I remember somebody - Trudi? Anne? - saying that they had counted 82 different tomato varieties.

Does anybody remember the top ten tomatoes in the tasting? I think somebody threw out the list when we cleaned up after the fest. Maybe I should email my nephew Ed - he might remember them since he announced the winners! I do recall that there were several cherry tomato varieties in the top ten - Black Cherry (the winner), Sungold, and either Matts' Wild Cherry or Red Currant, I can't remember which.

My new personal favorites were Olena Ukrainian and Cherokee Green. The only one I considered a "spitter" was Black from Tula - a disappointment, since I love most black tomatoes.

Anyway, a hearty thank-you to Greg F. for helping organize this thing. I also want to thank the other folks who helped to set up (my sister Theresa and Janet M), and those who helped clean up (brother Chris, SIL Suzy, and Ed & Maggie); DH Dave and Greg M, the grillmeisters; Trudi and Anne for their demos; Joe, for his statistical expertise - Suzy and I never would have calculated the winners accurately without him; and everybody who brought tomatoes and other food! Did I forget anybody?

Oh, I forgot - while cleaning up, I picked up a page of seed-sowing information in a three-hole-punched plastic cover. Trudi, is it yours? Do you want me to mail it to you?

I asked Steve about the list--he has a good memory and he remembered some of them--

1) Black Cherry
2) Olena Ukranian
3,4,5--showhere in here he thinks were one of the dried SunGolds ( I liked the halves as they were like candy)
9) Brown Berry

also on the list--but can't remember the position was Cherokee Purple.

Cecilia, someone mentioned on GW that he left his clipboard and wants to know if you found it.

Donna, I saw that post on GW - no, I didn't find the clipboard. I hope somebody picked it up and will post!

Hi Cecilia,

I gave out some WS info and urls to everyone who was there, I'm assuming that's one of the sheets. I always put them into sheet protectors to make it easy for folks to find or keep at home. If you didn't get one then please do keep it.

I have the clipboard and assumed it was Dunkel's. I will check GW and see if I can get a name and address.

Greg