Tomatopalooza™ 8 Announcement
 

Announcing the eighth annual Tomatopalooza™ heirloom tomato tasting!

We will be holding our eighth annual event this year at
Apex Community Park in Apex, NC.
Date : 7/31/2010
Time: 1pm~4pm

This year marks an even more laid back event than the past years. Registration is requested this year, and information on that can be found out the web site.

We will be in the large shelter at the park only 50' from the waterside!

See [URL]http://tomatopalooza.org/[/URL] for more information and directions.

Please post here if you have questions/comments or are
planning to attend.

Lee

Whoo Hooo! Count the 2 of us in from down on the coast! Can't wait to see y'all - we'll see what is ripe by then after mucho delays this year!

Did you guys send a mass mail out about the location change? If so, I didn't get it -- wouldn't have known the location had changed without having gotten suspicious and stopping by the site yesterday... I also didn't get confirmation on registration. If you don't send out confirmations/location change mails, then that's okay.

No email was sent about the location change.
All sources of the announcement however were updated with the new directions.

No email confirmation was sent on registration. The registration was for our
benefit to know who and how many to expect. Previous years had folks just
showing up, and this year I wanted to know how many were going to be there.

I will probably send a followup email to those who indicated they would be
bringing tomatoes to ask them to get to the park early.

As a follow up to Lee's note, we are a bit overwhelmed at the moment as far as the registration number. The Our State magazine article, word of mouth, etc is making this a very popular (and under the current resourcing/organization structure) and perhaps unmanageable event - the key is that people somehow attend in a staggered fashion (we are at risk of overwhelming the venue), and that somehow magically sufficient tomatoes - in number and variety - appear! The unusual (to say the least) weather in this area is making this one of the more stressfully anticipated events to date.

So, as they say, we shall see how this goes!!!!

Hi guys - thank you for going to the trouble of hosting this tasting. I hope it doesn't get so big as to be too much of PIA to continue with. I got a dose of the problems when I explored doing a tasting down here - location is a problem - my yard is too overgrown with plants to have a party except in the driveway (with the cars, truck & jonboat & plants looming in from the sides LOL) & other sites are requiring liability insurance (yikes - that's a whole new can of worms) or wanting to advertise over radio, papers, etc. if they assume liability (how many tomatoes have you got so far? I was whacked with Dow Agroscience's lovely aminopyralid & then insufferable heat everlasting).

So again, our heartfelt thanks for your efforts.
You want another cheesesteak this year?
Also, what kind of "palate cleansers" would you like us to bring?

Are you paying fees for the site? How much? We would be glad to contribute to offset costs.

Phew. I was worried that I'd done something to offend! Thanks for the info.

Due to a combination of some unexpected publicity for the Tomatopalooza event this year (the Our State article), as well as a continuing (and growing) interest in heirloom and unusual tomatoes, we regret to say that registration for the event is now closed. Our venue is limited in its capacity and we have managed to far exceed the recommended numbers (as well as attendance we've experienced in the past few years).

For those of you who have registered and will attend, this is a renewed plea to bring some tomatoes - preferably those that you have grown/know the name of, but we are quite concerned about tomato supply, due to the unusually hot weather and its impact on local gardens. If you find yourself at a Farmers Market and find something interesting (and it has a name!), bring along a few for us to taste - even if it is a typical, red tomato! And, if you are bringing tomatoes, please try to come well prior to the starting time so your harvest can be registered into the event.


Finally - due to the high potential attendance numbers, it would be great that (if by some sort of magic) you can stagger your visit to the event. If this year is like others, (and, again if we get a bit of magic on tomato supplies), we will have plenty to taste for people who arrive at all sorts of times between the start and the end of the event.

Thanks again,

Lee

errrr, did I miss needing to register someplace else?