MAGTAG II - Tasty Success!

[bluekat]

Tomato lovers dream day 2007.

Yesterday was great despite the heat!! Nothing like talking and eating tomatoes. Thanks to Cecilia and her family, Greg and his family and who am I forgetting? for all your hard work - it was much appreciated!! and for the fans.

Thanks to Gene, Greg and Trish for the seeds! My list is officially started for next year. The tomato winners for me were Little Lucky and Green Grape.

Congrats go to Gene and his grandson for the monster Chapman tomato weighing in @ 2 lbs 3 oz.!!

Did anyone find a heavy silver pen with a design in the center and a slit in the top part (paper comes out)? I think I left it on one of the tomato tasting tables.

Still eating tomatoes here - Little Lucky is for lunch.

-Kim

[Adenn1]

I am so grateful I was able to attend...and many thanks out to Greg, Cecilia and the many others who made this wonderful event happen. I will post some pictures soon.

Mark

[Lee]

Sounds like a great time.... now does anyone have pictures?
What other varieties made an apperance?

And I agree, that Little Lucky is a mighty fine variety! Yummo!

Lee

[Adenn1]

I am having some problems getting my pictures to up load to Photobucket...will try again tomorrow.

Some of my favorites were Cherokee Purple, Green Grape, Aunt Gerties Gold and the ground cherries.

[Adenn1]

Okay...a few pictures:

Below is the size winner...broght by Gene's (Spkfero) grandson


Cecilia ( Cecilia_MD7a ) tallying the votes:


Everyone enjoying themselves:


The tables:





And Gene--who came from Michigan and brought an enormous amount of seeds...thanks Gene!

[Cecilia_MD7a]

Hello, everybody - I think MAGTAG 2007 was a success, despite the heat. Thanks to everybody who participated. Although we had fewer varieties to taste (60-something compared to 83 last year), we had more attendees.

I hope that next year the weather is a little more cooperative! The high temp at BWI was 96 degrees, but I bet it was higher near the city, where we were. Thank goodness everybody brought along lots of water - special thanks to Suzy and Chris for that huge cooler full of "repurposed" water bottles. Funny - when I emptied the trash bag full of recyclables in order to put them in clear bags for Balto. County to pick up, there were only a few soda bottles and beer cans - all the rest were water bottles!

I hope none of our out-of-towners (Trudi and Steve, Mark, etc.) were affected by the powerful storm that hit the area later Saturday evening. Our power went out around 8:00 pm and didn't come on again until Sunday. Luckily, we turned off all the electronics. I have a gas stove and was able to put those leftover MAGTAG tomatoes to use the next day by making an impromptu pasta sauce that also included peppers and basil from my garden.

We really need to come up with a quick, accurate way of tallying votes. This year, I adapted (i.e., plagiarized) Feldon's scorecards for SETT, which did simplify the actual voting. But I'm still running into trouble calculating the winners! (My calculator's malfunctioning didn't help either, nor did the fact that I was exhausted). Thanks to all the folks (Stacy, Steve, etc.) who helped out or offered suggestions. I hope we can find a method that will speed the process to get all the votes tallied before half the attendees have gone.

Any suggestions on this resolving this issue are greatly appreciated. I've also asked the moderators of other regional festivals for their ideas.

Does anybody (Annebert? gflynn?) remember the top ten varieties? I know SOMEBODY was writing them down. I think Trudi won second place, and Greg took first and third. And the largest tomato - brought by Gene's grandson - won the Largest Tomato contest, at 2 lbs 3/10 oz.

I'm sorry Dunkel couldn't make it (although 90 degree weather could be really rough on a big guy like him). Has anybody heard from him? Is he OK?

[Adenn1]

I had just made it down to the inner harbor and was going to find something to eat...when the sky darkened and I saw all of the lightening...I took off sprinting back to the light rail stop at the ball park. I attempted to leap over a planting box in the sidewalk to get by people...and maybe because I'm not eighteen anymore, I caught the edge and ended up twisting an ankle and flying head first into a parked car--it was probably funny to watch. I was okay...sore ankle and hurt pride...but I made it to the train in time. Just got on the train when the wind and rain hit...so glad I was not out in that mess. Luckily my hotel did not lose power...that would have been a bummer.

When I came back home Sunday and my wife saw me and my cuts and bruises...she asked what happened. Having my sense of humor...I told her that there was a robust debate over which tomatoes were the best...and it ended up in a fight/riot. Went on to say I was assaulted by several people wearing funny hats...

[gflynn]

It's taken awhile for me to respond because of work plus vacation that I just returned from but it was truely a success with many folks from all around helping out.

Dunkel had some money stolen and wasn't able to make it for that and other reasons but really wanted to come. We had 67 varieties and a combination of new and old faces. I have been saving seeds like mad and already have next years garden partly planned!

White Current was a suprise for me and I hope to grow some from the seed I got from Wayne. Thanks Wayne!

I am going to post the names of all of the varieties but it may takes a few days.

With tomato love,

Greg