HOMEGROWN TOMATO FEST XVI

Saturday, August 6, from 9 – 11 a.m. 

Kingsport Farmers Market 

Center Street & Clinchfield Street, Kingsport.  

Join us for this celebration of the juicy red fruit – featuring tomato  contests, free tomato tastings (including many heirloom varieties),  free tomato refreshments, tomato-growing advice, activities for kids,  and fun for the whole family. Gather your finest and/or funkiest tomatoes and enter them in the  contests for Best Tasting, Biggest, Prettiest, Ugliest, Most Bizarre  and/or Best Dressed Tomato. Admission is free, there are no entry  fees and everyone is welcome to enter. Entry forms may be down loaded here or picked up at the event. Entries will be accepted from 9-10 a.m. for all contests at the  Kingsport Farmers Market SAPS table, and winners will be announced after 10 a.m. 

Homegrown Tomato Fest is sponsored by SAPS and City of King sport Farmers Market.  

Volunteer to help on this fun morning with fellow SAPS members.  Volunteers are needed to slice tomatoes, serve tomato sandwiches,  etc. For Master Gardeners your time counts for your volunteer  hours. If you can help, contact Kathy Waldo, Tomato Fest Chair, at  kathywaldo1@comcast.net. 

Tomatoes are incredibly versatile. We stand in the garden and eat them like candy right off the vine. We include them in salads of all kinds, put them on sandwiches and burgers, roast them, add them to soups and stews. We can them as  whole or cut tomatoes, sauces and salsas. Dried tomatoes are used in nearly  every cuisine. Tomatoes arrive in a variety of shapes and sizes. We find them in nearly every  color of the rainbow and most of us have a preference for a variety, a color, a  size. One constant is that every summer many thousands of us wait eagerly for the  first ripe tomatoes from the garden. Few experiences are more delightful than  enjoying the flavor of the first fresh ripe tomato of the season.