[JerryL]

Let me first thank everyone for coming yesterday. We had another great turnout. Some of the regulars were missing but as usual we had some first timers. Going from my memories best guess, since I never have the presence of mind to count the people when they are there, I’ll say we had about 35 people throughout the day.

Some of the new CHOPTAGers included George who brought Dolly Parton (1st photo 0334) with him.

Ron also came. Ron is an example of why everyone should always talk tomatoes no matter where they are. Three years ago I attended a woodworking show/sale in Columbus Ohio. He tells me we sat through a wood turning demonstration together and somehow we starting talking tomatoes. I gave him a CHOPTAG card and now he’s hooked.

Then there was Garnetmoth. Now this is one dedicated tomato lady. Her avatar. It’s real!!! (2nd photo 0333)

But I think the award for the best newcomer has to go to Barbee (3rd photo 0314). Barbee didn’t have a lot of tomatoes, but as everyone that comes to our events knows, that’s not a problem. She gets the newcomer award because she tasted just about every tomato there. And that was a lot of tomatoes.

We all complained about the poor growing season – unusual weather, diseases, late ripening, etc…. Not sure why we were complaining though. We had over 90 varieties represented. And some of those 90 varieties had multiple showings.

Now for the awards.

The heaviest and largest, in circumference, went to the same tomato. Amy brought it. It’s the big yellow guy on the far right side of photo #4 (0327). I don’t have my notes with me and for the life of me I can’t remember the variety. But I do remember it weighed 2lbs ¼ oz and measured 17 and ¼ inched in circumference. That’s one big tomato.

Contrary to an accusation made in another thread the judging was above reproach. We had no chads, no ballot box stuffing and no hanky panky of any kind. In the past we gathered around at the end of the day a tasted nominations for tastiest and viewed the prettiest and ugliest contestants. Then we did a show of hands. We did things a little different this year. We did a ballot system. Write down the variety and grower in each category. What could be easier? It wasn’t really a secret ballot system since there were tomato juice finger prints on several of the forms.

There were about 4 or 5 varieties voted for in the Ugly category which was won by a Pruden’s Purple that I think was brought by Ray but once again the memory thing has hit me. The Prettiest and Tastiest categories each got about a dozen different variety votes. This year, for the first time in the 7 years we’ve been having this event I finally won an award. Actually I won two awards.

The Prettiest went to my Winsall (far right, third row down in the 5th photo – 0323). The Tastiest went to my Granny’s Yellow Red Butt (far left, second row down in the 4th photo) a variety Amy brought to the Plant Swap in the spring. It’s a Bi-color with guess what! A Red Butt (blossom end).

So there you have it. The 7th annual CHOPTAG Taste Fest is history. I hope everyone had a good time. I know I did.