You say 'tomato'; they say 'Amish Paste'

By Allie Blood

Published Sept. 7, 2007

Whether it's a fruit or a vegetable, the tomato was king at Thursday's Tomato Festival.

Tomato enthusiasts, gardeners and residents of Columbia gathered at the Bradford Research and Extension Center to sample tomatoes, salsa and peppers. Local vendors, who offered salsa to guests, were new to the Tomato Festival this year. La Casita Patio Cafe, The Copper Kettle, Chevy's Fresh Mex, Chipotle Mexican Grill and MU Campus Dining Services donated salsa. Next year, coordinators hope to welcome vendors from St. Louis and Kansas City to the festival.

"They don't have a chance to do anything like this out there," farm superintendent Tim Reinbott said.

This year, the Master Gardeners helped festival coordinators run the Tomato Festival. Master Gardeners is a community educational program associated with the university, and its members do volunteer work within the community.

The festival offered educational seminars on tomato care and culture, as well as an ask-the-experts booth for amateur gardeners. The largest area of the festival was reserved for the tomato-tasting tent, which brought 400-500 people, as compared to approximately 300 last year, Reinbott said.

"This event broadens our audience and gets new people out here," horticulturist coordinator Leslie Shaw said.

Visitors enjoyed 55 varieties of tomatoes, including the Green Pineapple, Black Sea Man, Purple Calabash, Amish Paste and Tiny Tiger varieties.

"I come just to taste all the different varieties," Columbia resident Mike Dennis said. "My favorite is the Missouri Pink Love Apple."

Tomatoes varied in shape from the size of a quarter to the size of a grapefruit, and in color from yellow to purple.

"I don't know about those purple ones," gardener Heidi Stallman said. "They just look wrong."

As tomato fans tasted slices of each tomato, they wrote down their overall impression on a sheet of paper next to each sample. They rated tomatoes on a scale of one to five. Bradford researchers will grow the highest-rated tomatoes next year.

"A good tomato has got to have something that says tomato about them," Columbia resident Mary Hendrickson said. "They just got to burst into your mouth with some flavor. It's a combination of mellow and acid."

Sharing the tomato tent, salsa vendors displayed their salsas as visitors sampled. Some featured spicy salsas, while others stayed on the mild side.

"We could put habañeros and stuff in there to make it hot enough to burn the grass off, but we do it for the flavor," Copper Kettle representative Travis Brock said.

Those who favored the spicier salsa enjoyed the chili and pepper exhibit, which offered 32 varieties of peppers, including the Anaheim-Mucho Nacho hybrid and Bulgarian Carrot chile varieties.

"It has a musky hot flavor," resident Alicia Michels said of the Caribbean Red chile.

Some festival visitors came for reasons outside of salsa, tomatoes or peppers.

"My favorite part is looking at the plants here," Electron Microscopy Core employee Melania McClain said. "The field has some old plants, pretty gourds and such."