Tomato Extravaganza

By Ann Dozier

It’s high summer and how are your tomatoes doing?  Wish you’d known
which varieties give best results locally? Did you plant the best tasting varieties?

Come, taste and find out.  At their annual Tomato Extravaganza, Master Gardeners are celebrating the luscious red (or maybe striped or purple) tomato, queen of summer’s bounty.  Saturday, August 20, all things tomato will be the focus at the Seven Sisters demonstration garden at
View Larger Map">2156 Sierra Way in San Luis Obispo.

At this free “edible festival” you can taste ripe home-grown tomatoes and vote for your favorite.  Basil is a perfect companion for tomatoes – and several varieties (Thai, cinnamon, purple, etc.) will also be part of the tasting. 

As well as tastings, local experts will be offering mini-seminars. You can learn to cook up a great tomato dish or make flavorful vinegars for gifts.  Find out how to graft tomatoes or maybe find out what ate your plants this year!

Seminar Program:

10-11 AM Learn to Grow Your Own Gazpacho
A cooking demo with Joe Thomas of Thomas Hill Organics

11:15-11:45 Tomato Grafting- find out about the 'Mighty Mato'
with the California Rare Fruit Growers  

Noon-12:30 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Integrated Pest Management of Insects in the Garden

12:30-1 PM Flavored Wine Vinegar and growing grapes

Worm Bins will be available all day! $98- Includes the full kit with instruction booklet, education table set up all day to help you get one set up, and red wigglers!  We recommend reserving one now by clicking here.

If all this has worked up your appetite, you may want to purchase some tomato-based treats cooked up for the occasion by local chef Rochelle Harringer.  Children who attend will have fun making tomato heads to take home.  To find the Tomato Extravanza Poster, scroll to the bottom of this post and click on the underlined attachment.

Got a Gardening Question?
Contact the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners: at 781-5939 from 1 to 5 p.m. on Monday and Thursday; at 473-7190 from 10 a.m. to noon in Arroyo Grande; and at 434-4105 from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday in Templeton. Visit the UCCE Master Gardeners Web site at groups.ucanr.org/slomg/ or e-mail mgsanluisobispo@ucdavis.edu