SETTFest 2010 Reviews & Comments

[Mojo]

Lemme get this ball rolling... HUGE bowing down and genuflecting to our organizers for pulling this together. It was AWESOME!!!

Unless my judgment is off, we had more on display this year than last (we made it almost to the very end of the pavilion). Attendance seemed to be a bit down but this year we attracted a good number of random outsiders from inside the park. (Maybe we should advertise, so we can have more folks willing to take the leftovers home?)

I got there late ("I play the Three-Year-Old Card: she sets our agenda!") and was on the end, so a lot of people were full by the time they got to me. I do note that the Golden Gems disappeared almost completely --again! I confess to a certain amount of envy towards Suze --the ones that we had in common, she edged me on size. (Side note: things loom larger in memory, and we may have set an impossible-to-meet standard with all our stories of the Fabled 2009 ATKINSON! Tomato, in terms of taste. Still, ours this were very good...)

My only disappointment (besides the Box Fan Incident) was that I didn't have my very best to bring because of the lateness. My Tony's Italians and Blacks From Tula were pale shadows compared to the ones I have been eating here at home. Is that just me?

I snagged two gallon-bags full of everyone's offerings specifically to make sauce tonight, which is ongoing as of this post. The juice is decadently good, too, by the way. I simply don't have the room to grow more than ten varieties at a time and getting an accurate fix on What I Like; however, I did decide to grab some of these for seed-saving:

1. Brad's Black (Ox?)heart --was listed as "Brad's Black Heart"
2. Serendipity --really looking forward to this one, my "Atkinson" for 2011.
3. Paw Paw --cannot find a descriptor in Google???
4. Cherokee Yellow --b/c I am retiring Cherokee Purple for a while
5. Sweet Carneros Black --a very striking 'mater indeed.

Tons of pictures coming soon from those who were there with cameras.

I can't pick a true "winner" --it's not like last year when everyone coalesced around ATKINSON, this time things were more varied. I'm picking Serendipity just to say I picked one, I really like it but yellow/variegateds aren't everyone's fave.

Next!

[mdvpc]

Had a great time today going to the 2010 SETTFEST! Rosalina and I , our son, David who lives in San Antonio, and Eliza Marie, his fiancee had a great time. Met Suze, Feldon, Snappy Bob, Mike in Cypress, Linda 10, another Bob, TuttaMatta and many more very nice folks! Tasted a huge amount of varieties and took seed home for some we liked. Thanks to all the organizers for a great experience! And of course, met Mojo!

[snappybob]

I'd like to thank all that showed up for SETTFest IV and especially those that brought tomatoes to share. We actually had a few more people in attendance this year. Attendance keeps going up every year even if only by a little. Thanks to all for coming.

The mystery prize turned out to be Carolyn Male's Book "100 Heirloom Tomatoes" and was won by Robert Taylor. Two Tomatoville T-Shirts were also given away. One was won by Mojo and the other was won by Bob Strawn. Photos were taken of the drawing so they will probably be posted either here or on the SETTFest website. I took some snapshots also and will post them as soon as I figure out why they are not showing up in my post.

[feldon30]

SETTFest 2010 Sizzling Flavors

The 4th annual South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest) was our third visit to picturesque Washington on the Brazos state park. Despite the unrelenting heat, it's a great venue to hold this event. This year, the date (June 19th, 2010) coincided very nearly with Father's Day. We're very thankful to any families that had to do without tomato-loving dads for a few hours.

As always, we caught up with old friends, and saw folks who traveled from far and wide. We had visitors from San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Louisiana, El Paso, TX (a 680 mile drive), and the furthest were from California and Oregon!

We are thrilled that more and more folks are bringing tomatoes and other items as well. This year, we saw a marked increase in the number of growers bringing tomatoes. An event like this works best when there are several providers of tomatoes. There was also a nice spread of cheeses, breads, and an ever-evolving pasta salad put together from fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the event.

Our mission at SETTFest is to introduce heirloom tomatoes to Central and South Texas gardeners and farmers alike, dispel the myths that only ‘heat setter’ varieties can be grown here, and offer advice and seeds wherever we can. So it was great to see folks asking lots of questions (including a few stumpers!), gathering seeds, and talking shop.


It has been my continuing honor to co-organize SETTFest along with Suze, and with increasing involvement from SnappyBob and his wife for the last 4 years.

[feldon30]

Door Prize Photos

Everyone who made a donation received a raffle ticket. Snappybob gave out 3 door prizes.



Linda was the winner, but she already had a copy of Carolyn Male's book, so she drew the next ticket for the winner -- Robert.

The next ticket meant that Mojo had his pick of two Tomatoville T-shirts. You can see which he chose!



And the winner of another Tomatoville t-shirt, this time a black one, was Bob S. who brought seeds for a variety of gigantic cabbage that he's been growing for 10 years now.



Thanks to SnappyBob for putting together these prizes and running the raffle!

[feldon30]

SETTFest 2010 Event Photos are now online!

We're working on the variety shots and list of varieties present.

You'll notice at the bottom of the SETTFest 2010 Photo Gallery a folder called Pre-Event Photos. These are some photos taken at Suze's just prior to SETTFest. I flew into Austin to visit and while I was there, I took the BBQ pit for a spin on some baby back ribs. Of course there was lots of picking and sorting tomatoes for the event.

[Mojo]

There was BBQ???!!!??? Dangit, I passed up a BBQ Crawl and this is just cruel cruel irony!!! Next year I may have to bring a brisket so we can all eat...

Oh, and is that what P20 looks like on the vine? I'm comparing them to the ones in the photo at the pavilion. They turn red at ripening? How strange!

[huntoften]

Looks like you guys had a great time!

I have a question for whoever can help me. I see that you guys display all of the tomatoes whole first. Do the guests cut them as they go along and try them or do you have a designated person or two at a cutting board?

I'm just trying to streamline our tasting here in Kansas City and would appreciate any help. If someone could provide a "play by play"of how the event works, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!!!

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Mojo

There was BBQ???!!!??? Dangit, I passed up a BBQ Crawl and this is just cruel cruel irony!!! Next year I may have to bring a brisket so we can all eat...

On Thursday, I did two racks of baby back ribs on Suze's NB Bandera smoker. I also did some links of sausage. I've never used that kind of smoker before so I would not have felt comfortable "cooking for SETTFest" on it. Also, we had plenty to do for the event as it was.

That said, I was very happy with the results. The ribs got rubbed with BBQ 3000 from Penzey's, rested for 5 hours, then smoked with Pecan wood for 3 hours, then foiled with apple juice for 45 minutes, then glazed with Head Country BBQ sauce and cooked for another 45 minutes. The smoke ring as you can see was about 1/2 inch thick. They tasted amazing and didn't need any sauce at all. One rack was fall-off-the-bone, while the other was more bite-through.

Originally Posted by Mojo

Oh, and is that what P20 looks like on the vine? I'm comparing them to the ones in the photo at the pavilion. They turn red at ripening? How strange!

P20 is a red tomato, whose skin is reactive to sunlight. Any part of the skin of the tomato that is exposed to sunlight during growth will turn blue. Presumably, commercial farmers will come up with ways to have light hit all surfaces of the tomato to provide a uniform color. Maybe they'll mulch with foil.

Originally Posted by huntoften

I have a question for whoever can help me. I see that you guys display all of the tomatoes whole first. Do the guests cut them as they go along and try them or do you have a designated person or two at a cutting board?

I'm just trying to streamline our tasting here in Kansas City and would appreciate any help. If someone could provide a "play by play"of how the event works, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!!!

Sure thing. We had the first tomatoes (about 90 varieties) set up and laid out by 11:15am. We then photograph each plate. A little after noon, we unpack three dozen cheap steak knives and distribute them to the tables. Suze and I start going down the line cutting tomatoes into sample sizes. Soon, volunteers join in and it ends up taking less than 20 minutes to get them all cut up.

Also, we cut the tomatoes right on the foam plates. Transferring the tomatoes to and from a cutting board would easily double or triple the time it takes us to prepare the tomatoes for tasting.

I personally slice off the very bottom of the tomato (mostly just skin) and discard it, then slice the tomato up until about the midway point. Then I cut those slices in half, and kind of tilt the knife back and forth to fan out the slices to make a nice display. If it's a tomato I've been wanting to taste, I'll try one of the very bottom slices, because that's usually the best part of a tomato.

As people bring more tomatoes, we take photos of them whole, then cut them so people can taste. This year we tried something new, having all the tomatoes on the one long bench facing the road. The only issue is, sometimes plates get bunched together and when people bring new tomatoes, sometimes we can't tell whose are whose.

For instance, I believe Lisa and blackestkrim both brought tomatoes, but I don't know for certain who brought which varieties.

[g8shot1]

Yummy, looks fun. Is there something like this gathering in the NE that I can read up on? Rural NY maybe?

[feldon30]

There's this:

Buffalo-Niagara Tomato TasteFest™ IV - 2010
Upstate New York - Canada event information and discussion forum.

[g8shot1]

Originally Posted by feldon30

There's this:

Buffalo-Niagara Tomato TasteFest™ IV - 2010
Upstate New York - Canada event information and discussion forum.

Thanks, should have checked first. Based on the '09 dates it's after labor day.

All y'all seem to have had a great time in SET for your TFEST!!!

[tuttamatta]

Hi you all (only 2 weeks in Texas and talking like one of you.....quite a feat for an Italian gal...) well, finally got home here in Portland, Oregon, can't believe I survived 2 weeks without a computer....but we were on the road and went to Corpus Christi and San Antonio and back up to Cedar Creek Lake and then Dallas.
Seen and done a lot and enjoyed all except for the heat, I guess I'm not used to it.
I so enjoyed the Tomato Festival, trying all the tomatoes that I could eat, but most of all I enjoyed meeting all of you and putting a face on a name/avatar.
Thank you so much, coordinators, for the hard work that went into this, and thank you Suze for the nice tomatoes that we took with us at the end, they lasted us for a full week and we enjoyed them so much.
I'm really happy that I was able to attend.
Paola

[Linda10]

I'm back home, too. So glad to be in 75 degrees again. Ditto everything Paola said. Morgan, Suze and Bob had a big job there. I know how much preparation goes into something like that and I only do it for a group of three.

After 2.5 weeks on the road, I got back to a jungle in my garden. My plants were huge and I have a lot of work to untangle, tie up and pull out old foliage. The ground is saturated from excess watering, so I know my first tomatoes will be large but diluted in flavor. Animals and bugs seemed to enjoy them though.

Thanks again to everyone. I brought a few seeds back home and can't wait to try them next year.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Mojo

Brad's Black (Ox?)heart --was listed as "Brad's Black Heart"

1. Serendipity --really looking forward to this one, my "Atkinson" for 2011.
2. Paw Paw --cannot find a descriptor in Google???
3. Cherokee Yellow --b/c I am retiring Cherokee Purple for a while
4. Sweet Carneros Black --a very striking 'mater indeed.

Yes, Brad's Black Heart is the correct name. From Brad / Wild Boar Farms.

I brought Sweet Carneros Pink (not black), also from Brad. Misspelled on plate (oops), does not have a "u" in Carneros. It was very productive for me this year, btw.

Paw Paw is a bicolor I got from WVTomatoMan, who also lists it in the SSE yearbook. His description there says "90 days, a.k.a. Paw Paw Yellow, indet., regular leaf plant with moderate to low production of 12-16 oz. bi-color fruit with excellent taste, My friend "Spud" Raney sells tomato seeds through the WV Market Bulletin. Sometimes a customer will send him seeds for trial, such is the case with Paw Paw. A customer sent 12 seeds, 6 of which Spud gave to me, we grew it out and both liked it, in fact, it was good enough that Spud now offers it, when Spud got in contact with the provider of the seeds he was only able to determine that "it is an old German yellow tomato that we've grown around here for over 80 years"

Serendipity is a cross of Earl's Faux x ?? - think I finally found another med-lg fruited bicolor I like as much as Lucky Cross.

Originally Posted by Mojo

I can't pick a true "winner" --it's not like last year when everyone coalesced around ATKINSON, this time things were more varied. I'm picking Serendipity just to say I picked one, I really like it but yellow/variegateds aren't everyone's fave.

I also found it hard to pick a true winner for the reasons you mentioned, but some personal favorites at the event of the ones I got a chance to taste included Martha Washington, Terhune, Tony's Italian, Indian Stripe "Plus", Purple Haze (both the F1 and the F2), Jumbo Jim Orange, Serendipity, Earl's Faux, Akers WV PL, Randy's Cherry Bomb, Atkinson (yours, not mine) -- I'm sure I'm leaving out several ...