Actually, it's the Greater Kansas City Tomato Tasting, 'greater' meaning 'metro.' But it's a great event, I never miss it. As in, I even made last year's and I was less than two weeks out from open heart surgery (and my ankles turned into blimps from the salt in the gazpacho).
We had over a hundred varieties to sample this year, as well as excellent food supplied by our host, Local Pig, and various offerings from local gardeners. I brought some chutney from last year's crop, also some of this year's excellent lacto-fermented pickles.
The past couple of years, I've felt like maybe I planted too many varieties, too many plants. It's a lot to fail to keep up with, 36 tomato plants last year, though as of the tasting yesterday the salsa was all gone, we're down to one more jar of the chutney and a couple of the marinara from last season. And when I thought I was scaling back, I think I pre-ordered 24 plants instead of 36 but then got sprung with some at the seed exchange, then Corinna got sprung with a couple and I think we're actually at 34 this year if you count the ones squatting in the corners of asparagus beds and whatnot.
And Corinna does love to fill the racks of the oven with slices to dry—I prefer fresh sliced tomatoes but she loves the 'sun dried' version where the sugars are concentrated. She has a bit of a sweet tooth, I guess I have more of a sour salty tooth or something like that.
Here's my friend Julie, if there's anyone to blame for my gardening, it's her. A few years ago after a bike ride I stopped at Todd & Julie's and they fed me heirloom tomatoes and I just had to grow me some.
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