By Michelle Fabio
If you will be around
At “America’s Favorite Tomato Harvest Festival” you’ll find over 350 heirloom tomato varieties including NatureSweet’s own, which started as an experiment by the Israeli Department of Agriculture to figure out how to grow tomatoes in Israel’s desert climate year round.
The results were transferred to the United States in 1990, and have been grown here ever since.
Those heirlooms along with innovative tomato dishes, over a hundred premium wines and tomato salsas, an international olive oil tasting event, an old-fashioned barbecue, and taste-testing of tomato specialty products ensure that you won’t go hungry or thirsty at the Quail Lodge Resort, site of the festival.
There will also be live music and dancing as well as celebrity chef and gardening demonstrations.
For the growers in the bunch, you can also find seeds for some hard-to-find heirloom tomatoes, although the NatureSweet brand is not among them – that remains a secret available to only a precious few.
This tomato lovefest began as a small family-and-friend get together, but now boasts participants from all over the world, including chefs, wine connoisseurs, tomato experts, and about 3000 people like you and me – those just looking for another way to show our appreciation for il pomodoro.
Net proceeds of the event go to local, regional, and national youth charities, having raised over $200,000 so far. If you’d like to go, do hurry on securing tickets as they tend to sell out before the event.
Visit NatureSweet Carmel TomatoFest’s website for more information.