Story By John Mann
extension office held their eighth annual Tomato Taste-Off Thursday giving the community a chance to show off their tomato growing skills and share in a BLT lunch.
“It’s a really good turnout it might be the most we’ve had so far,” Extension Office Director Kristen Roberson said. “Tomatoes are very popular around here. It seems like every year we have someone say ‘it’s just not the right time’ because some people get them early or late instead of right now. Everyone spends a lot of time and energy on growing their tomatoes.”
The Taste-Off included a competition that was divided into four categories: Best Slicing, Best Cherry, Heaviest Tomato and Best Tomato Dish. The tomatoes and dishes were looked over by a panel of four judges to find the winners, but everyone in attendance got to take part and vote for a separate set of People’s Choice awards.
Emily Mayer was the big winner for the day taking home three award for Best Slicing and Best Cherry as well as a People’s Choice for best cherry tomato. Roberson says that for the slicing category they look for ones that are juicy, ripe and full of color and says that one of the biggest mistakes people make is picking the tomatoes too early.
Bubba Wade brought in the heaviest tomato to win the award with a whopping 1.8 pounder and Mary McClendon took home People’s Choice for best slicing. For the tomato dishes the judges chose Colleen Hunkapiller as the winner, with Martha McClendon getting the People’s Choice award.
“This is my third year to enter a tomato dish and I had to keep up with my tradition,” Martha said. “I think my tomato pie is really good; I start with a homemade pie crust from the Extension’s cookbook I’ve had for over fifty years which gives it a good start. Then I use fresh grated cheddar cheese and fresh tomatoes and today we topped it with a lot of basil.”
The lunch provided gave everyone even more chances to try out some fresh grown tomatoes, with the BLTs featuring tomatoes grown by Grace Farms topped off with lettuce and bacon that was cooked up by Char Burger.
Tomatoes are a very popular produce in Marshall county and Roberson encourages anyone interested to give growing them a try. You can visit the Extension’s website at www.aces.edu and find publications about tomatoes or pick up a soil testing kit from their office that can be sent in for testing at Auburn for a small fee.
“Sometimes you need to add something to your soil or it might not have enough nutrients so before you plant anything do a soil test,” Roberson said. “There are hundreds of varieties of tomato so determine what kind you think suits you best, plant it and see what happens.”
You can find more information about the Marshall County Extension Office on their Facebook page under “Marshall County – Alabama Extension” or by visiting their website at aces.edu.
