Tomatofest

The tomatofest offered a pre-mixed collection of tomatoes. One could buy tomatoes and
have them shipped home, or take them "to go".

This seems like the longest trip ever, doesn't it? Are you bored yet? I promise this is the last entry about our trip. Last but not least, we headed to Carmel, CA for a Tomatofest. This is a charity event that is put on by a seed company at a golf and spa resort. They emailed me back in June to say that we should come early and wait on the line. That the waiting line is an event in and of itself with food and entertainment. One thing, you might not know about me, I don't like getting places early and waiting (except when it's for work, getting there early makes me feel better, but that's different!). I just never see the point in standing in line. I have my ticket, I know I'm getting in, so what's the rush? Not ever having been to this event, I didn't want to take a chance that I would miss something. Then I might feel bad. So we dutifully went early as instructed. I have to say, the event was handled smoothly. Everything was very orderly and calm. But did we need to get there early? No! The "entertainment," some guys singing, was only in one spot, where we couldn't see/hear them. The food was popcorn and fried green tomatoes. I declined the popcorn. Who wants to fill up on that? I'm here for the tomatoes! This was my first time trying fried green tomatoes, and I gotta say, they aint bad! I always imagined that the tomato part would be bland having not ripened, but no, they were tangy. I like it. I'm not crazy about the greasiness of fried food in general and this was no exception.

Once the gates opened, we were let loose on tables of food (with tomatoes of course) prepared by chefs, a tasting table with 350 varieties of tomatoes, and wine tasting of many, many wineries. I headed straight for the tomato tasting tables. They were set up with a whole tomato in the middle, so you can see what it looks like, and then the cut up samples down below. I photographed the ones that we liked, so that we could remember for future reference. They had preprinted check lists available to mark seed purchases. Some of my favorites, however, were suspiciously missing from the checklist. Several ladies I met while circling the tomato table were surreptitiously saving seeds from the samples. I thought that silly at the time. I mean, who has time for that? This event is only four hours and there's a lot to see, eat, drink, taste in that time. Once I got my seed checklist and learned that some of my picks were not on there, or sold out, I was bummed. But since I have limited space and liked almost two dozen, there was no way I was going to get seeds and grow out that many any time soon.

We met a lot of nice people at the event. We were some of the last to leave, mostly because I was going over my tomato list. Sticking around, we were given tomatoes by different people we met. I didn't feel I could decline the tomatoes. That would be rude. But, let's face it, at the end of a four hour tomato tasting event, you're a bit tomatoed out. Plus, we were leaving the next day to fly home. I didn't think the airline would allow me to carry on tomatoes with the new regulations. I didn't want to eat anymore tomatoes that day either. So I gave all my tomatoes to the shuttle bus driver that took us back to the hotel. She seemed happy to have them. When it comes to tomatoes, it never hurts to pay it forward.

Toothpicks were available for picking up a taste of each neatly labeled variety.
I did find some mislabeled and misspelled. My reward? More tomatoes! Thanks.

We only had one day in Carmel, unfortunately. After the tomatofest, we got the car and went for a drive. We drove down to the cute town area, parked and went to the beach. We walked along it for a bit. It was surprisingly busy for an overcast early evening. We could see the pebble beach golf course and decided to get back into the car and go for a drive.

To enter this scenic drive along the coast, with mansions and look out points along the way, one has to pay admission. If I remember correctly, it was $9. I found this a bit humorous for some reason. We wanted to see it, so we paid the price. I think the views were worth the price of admission. The overcast clouds cleared out and left behind just the right amout of clouds to make it interesting. The light was beautiful. We happened to be there at just the perfect time of day for picture taking. For the rest, well there's not much to say. So I'll let the pictures do the talking. Have a good one!