...home grown tomato date (summer stuff part 3)

Today Papa and I went to our favorite nursery for a special Tomato Tasting event. Thursday, funny Papa had said, "I'll take you if you drive" ;)

The sun was shining, the air was warm, fountains were splashing and trickling, plants were blooming, and the party was free.. excellent combination! (click on each pic to enlarge them)

There was live music, tomato tasting, fresh Italian bruschetta (nice, but I like Papa's Mexican salsa better), and a couple little booths set up selling wares, all to benefit the local Humane Society.

We sampled some pretty uniquely named and colored tomatoes (chocolate cherry and green zebra?!?) as well as the familiar ones (early girl and sweet 100's), and then voted for our favorite varieties. You'd write the name of one regular and one cherry tomato on a ticket stub and then put them into the little terra cotta pots next to the dish.

The zebra's were green, striped, and crisp and were really rather nice. They had a pleasant tomato flavor and didn't taste 'green' or unripe at all. Their crispness was unexpected but still quite agreeable and rather fun to experience. I just might pick up a plant at the nursery next year as a novelty...

The chocolate cherry ones, thankfully, didn't have a hint of chocolate flavor. They were sweet but I just couldn't get past the color or name to really enjoy them much.

(you've got to click on this pic to really appreciate that odd color!)

I found a new cherry/grape tomato to grow in the garden next year: Jelly Bean. It is so sweet and delicious even you non-tomato eating kids will like it... even tastier than the pear tomatoes we used to grow! There wasn't enough 'bite' to them to satisfy Papa. I read they come in both red & yellow so I think I may try one of each next Spring. Perhaps the red ones will be more acidic..

I would love to have brought these beautiful metal garden fence features home with us but each piece was almost $100 bucks, so I took a picture instead :)

Great way to spend a late summer-like Saturday afternoon! Thanks for 'taking' me, honey. I'll be our driver anytime =)

(yes, kids, that's actually a photo of your mother. Can you believe it?!? Look in the center of the pic; just under the tent wearing the white top, brown skirt - me, not the tent. I was coming back from about my 4th 'sampling' of those Jelly Bean tomatos :)

(..a little blurry; Papa's learning how to work my camera :)