It’s sunny and hot outside, and the tomatoes are ripening on the vines. Not in my garden, but in luckier people’s gardens across the country. My garden had been ravaged by deer this year. The fence I put up to keep them out didn’t work, and as my husband said, my fence really created a jungle gym for the deer with tasty snacks in the middle.
In year’s past, my tomatoes grew well and I canned sauce for our winter pizzas. My mom and I would make an afternoon of picking Italian tomatoes, pressing the seeds out and then cooking the sauce down to perfection. But this year, with no tomatoes of my own, I’m heading out to the farmers’ market to buy several different kinds of tomatoes to make my sauce. I’m also going to go to our regional Tomato Fest to see the variety of specialty and heirloom tomatoes that can be grown here. I’m hoping to come home with a bunch of seeds for next year’s garden. And if I am lucky, I won’t be growing the tomatoes for the deer.
You can look for a local farmers’ market on A Day’s Outing. If you want to make a day trip of it, here are a few tomato festivals around the country:
Heirloom Tomato Festival Westminster, MD Saturday, Aug 21st
Tomato Fest Sterling, VA Saturday, Aug 21st
Tomato Festival Harris, GA Saturday, August 21st
Fredericktown Tomato Show Fredericktown, OH Wednesday, September 8th - 11th
Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival Reynoldsburg, OH Friday, August 20th & Saturday, August 21st
