Tomato Tasting at Wild Boar Farms
"Berkeley Tie Dye". "Beauty King". "Pork Chop". "Furry Red Boar".
Not many of you would know that these are actual names of tomatoes that Brad (the owner of Wild Boar Farms) has developed and is growing on his farm in Suisun Valley, Solano County. They are the most amazing looking and tasting tomatoes you’ll ever encounter. If you’ve ever eaten at Chez Panisse during the summer and fall months, some of the tomatoes you enjoyed came from Brad's farm. Wild Boar Farms also supplies many other restaurants around the North SF Bay / Napa area.
Now why am I going on about this farm and its tomatoes?
Beauty King
Well, if you are tomato crazy like me, you’d be part of a forum of like-minded, tomato-crazy people. And we obsessed people just like to meet up every so often to talk about politics and such... Yeah, right! If you believe that, I have a tomato tree to sell you…. We talk about - what else - tomatoes!
One of the best times to meet up is when our tomatoes are ripening. We all get together to share our bounty and taste each others’ wonderful tomatoes. This year, Brad from Wild Boar Farms has graciously opened his farm as host for NORCATT (NORthern CAlifornia Tomato Tasting) 2008.
Berkeley Tie Dye
As a bonus this year, Brad says that a very popular Napa Valley restaurant has offered to do samples of some of their dishes using tomatoes at the tasting event. AND a veteran winemaker will be there to sample three new releases. How much better can it get? Well, how about this...it’s FREE! You just have to get yourself to the farm.
Beauty King and Berkeley Tie Dye
So if you’re in Northern California, you’re invited to come and experience a day of tomato tasting and touring the farm. Bring friends, bring tomatoes to share (if you have them), and bring an empty stomach because there are sure to be lots of tomatoes there!
Save the date: Sunday, August 10 2008, 11am-2pm.
I will post details and directions to the farm as the NORCATT date gets closer. Bookmark this site and stay tuned. Or better yet, subscribe to House of Annie by email and never miss any new posts!
Cheers, Annie
UPDATE AUGUST 3:
I have announced how to get to NORCATT 2008 in our latest post, titled "Letting the NORCATT out of the Bag". Go there now!
PS: Those of you living in other parts of the country can search for tomato tastings in your area by signing in to the Tomatoville.com forums and looking under the Regional Group Gatherings section.
Related tomato posts:
Annie's Top Five Tomato Growing Tips
Love (Apple) At First Bite
Roasted Tomato, Onion and Pepper Gazpacho
World's Best Lasagna
Strawberry and Tomato Salad with Maple
Spinach and basil salad with bacon, roasted tomatoes, and candied walnuts
More food porn
7 Comments:
some of those don't even look like tomatoes! such interesting coloring!
Those tomatoes look so beautiful. We only have the regular red tomatoes at the market here in New Orleans.
wished i could get such tomatoes here! anyway thanks for coming by my blog ;-)
Wow lovely colors dear.. love those cuties
Look at all of those gorgeous tomatoes! This sounds like a fantastic event, if only I lived in California :(
Finally tomato season. Such interesting names for tomatoes. I wish we had something like this around here.
@quitecontrary - tomatoes come in more colors than just red: yellow, orange, green, purple, white, black, bi-colored...there's so much variety, it'll make your head spin!
@Gillsnthrills - I bet if you go to the farmer's market, you'll find some different ones.
@babe_kl - Hopefully some enterprising sort will figure out how to grow these varieties there.
@KALVA - thanks!
@Madeline - check out the Tomatoville forums and see if there's a tasting near you. Or ask a Master Gardener.
@Jude - Oh, I'm sure the Chicagoland area has something like this.
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