TomatoFest is no more…sob!

Bill and I have been going to the TomatoFest in Carmel at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley for 5 years. We poured wines for our cousin’s winery, Wines of Carmel and then took turns to walk around and taste wines, various gourmet dishes prepared with tomatoes by local restaurants, enjoy the great live music and basically have a fun afternoon! Cynthia Saunders, Manresa Restaurant’s kitchen gardener and owner of the Love Apple Farm, contributed a large amount of the tomatoes that you could taste and purchase at the festival. There were several vendors selling everything from olive oil & heirloom tomato seeds to tomato themed knick-knacks. Unfortunately, the TomatoFest has it’s last year in 2008 because Gary Ibsen, the founder, retired.
During its tenure, The TomatoFest was indeed America's most spectacular tomato harvest festival. It embraced the celebration of the season's tomato harvest, and in its sharing of chefs, farmers, winemakers, wine & food lovers, and the family (including children), it celebrated community. During it's 17 years the Carmel TomatoFest® has donated more than $240,000.00 to local, regional and national charities to benefit children. www.tomatofest.com

You can still go to the tomatofest website and buy heirloom tomato seeds….or take a drive and buy seedlings or take gardening classes from Cynthia’s Love Apple Farm.

The TomatoFest is being replaced by an event called “Harvest – a 2-day farm-to-table event celebrating agriculture, viticulture, cheese and good times." The website is "under construction" but keep checking www.harvestcarmel.com for current info.

I assume it will continue to be at the Quail Lodge since they are one of the sponsors. I have no idea how much it will cost since it is now a 2-day event and no longer focuses on tomatoes (the TomatoFest was $120 for the day)but when I talked with my cousin, she thought it was going to be cheaper this year...like around $85 for the day..you'll just have to keep checking the website for accurate info.

It is being run by the same people who put on the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Event. If it is on the same level as the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Event, it will be an “affair to remember.” I haven’t decided yet whether to volunteer at this event or not. Being another “first” event tells me that it won’t be a smoothly run operation (“firsts” never are…) but it could be a fun…it’s how I met Tina so it was definitely worth my time to volunteer at the Pebble Beach affair! Which reminds me, did you know that some events CHARGE volunteers to volunteer? Tina mentioned that one must pay anywhere from $150-200 to volunteer at the US Open tournaments since it allows the volunteer to watch the event when they aren’t working. They even have a waiting list of a 1000 people! I checked to see if any of us can volunteer at the Harvest event but apparently they are trying to only use local residents for volunteers or ones they’ve used in the past (maybe that makes Tina & I eligible!!).

If you are interested in the Harvest event, mark your calendars for Sept. 26-27 weekend! It should be a fun event and the restaurants and wineries are no longer local but from all over California so I understand that there will be restaurants and wineries from Napa, San Francisco, Sonoma, etc. as well as Monterey County.

My tomatoes are just beginning to ripen so the best season of the year is about to commence! There are tons of "Tomato menus" at various local restaurants coming up as well but they are pretty pricey. Especially when I just like my tomatoes with just a touch of salt, just off the vine! I planted some heirloom tomato plants from Cynthia's Love Apple Farm and they are still really green so I will have tomatoes to harvest for quite a while and can make "Fried Green Tomatoes" with some of the beefsteaks that I planted just for that purpose! Ahhh, I just love this time of the year!

Bon appétit!