‘AMAZING, BIZARRE, DELICIOUS’
Tomato Extravaganza to celebrate this fruit — not vegetable — and its infinite variety
The French called the tomato pomme d’amour, or love apple, because they believed the exotic fruit — not vegetable — from the New World had aphrodisiac powers.
For gardeners in Edmonton, lust for everything tomato has been growing in anticipation of the Tomato Extravaganza, taking place at The Enjoy Centre in St. Albert Aug. 29.
Donna Bagdan is the self-described “Top Tomato” with the Edmonton Horticultural Society, which partnered with a variety of sponsors, including the Edmonton Food Bank, to promote the celebration.
She says the seed for the unique event was planted when Arch Greenhouses offered 76 varieties of heritage tomatoes for sale this spring.
“It will be an educational and fun-filled day showing the vast array of amazing, bizarre, delicious, not-so-delicious, heirloom and hybrid tomatoes grown in the Edmonton area,” says Bagdan, adding the event also offers a chance to share your harvest with others who can’t afford fresh produce.
“The Edmonton Food Bank is literally over the moon thinking about people in the Capital Region sharing their tomatoes with them.”
She says she will measure the event’s success in tonnes of tomatoes donated.
Bagdan and her partner, Brian Heidecker, who describes himself as “an old farm boy who can’t stop growing things,” have spent this gardening season supporting the unpredictable growing patterns of 54 heritage tomatoes in their west Edmonton yard.
“I’ve got Brutus out there,” says Heidecker of one tomato specimen closing in on five pounds and supported by a pantyhose sling. He says he never really paid attention to the thousands of tomato varieties that exist until this year.
Now he has come toe-to-tomato with chocolate sprinkles, pineapple, yellow pear — which looks exactly like a miniature of the fruit — and even Rapunzel.
The spectacular hanging plant resembles its namesake with curled, six-foot-long “tresses” bearing fruit most of the way down its vines.
Across town in Sherwood Park, growing tomatoes has become a group effort under the leadership of Shenaz Jeraj.
She had her first hands-on tomato experience a few years ago after purchasing a single plant and growing it in a container.
The businesswoman enjoyed the savoury success of that first crop so much that she attended some workshops at Hole’s Greenhouse and went on YouTube to learn more.
The following year, she and her husband Azin tried growing plants from seed.
“We started with one packet of tomatoes, and all of them germinated,” Jeraj says with a laugh.
The result was a bumper crop, and the addition of five raised beds on their half-acre property. That success led to further experimenting with seeds for multi-coloured cherry, celebrity, and heritage varieties the next spring.
Seventy-two plants germinated, and Jeraj began looking for homes for about half their seedlings, providing complimentary growing advice to any takers.
The plant-sharing and delicious results created so much interest that Jeraj — who emigrated from Tanzania in the 1970s — decided to get organized and educate friends about growing tomatoes.
“That’s how I formed this group,” she says, adding each of the group’s 12 members are of East African origin.
She began with a spring seedplanting workshop around her kitchen island in March.
Since only four members of the group have some gardening experience, everyone was given seeded growing trays to take home — with mixed results.
“One girl had no idea, but she had a really sunny room, so everything she grew turned out really good,” Jeraj says.
“Two or three people killed everything,” she adds with a chuckle.
But it all balanced out when the budding gardeners met again in May to share the survivors. Everyone ended up with 10 plants, and the bonus of a tomato-growing community that meets for breakfast and offers plant babysitting when needed.
Jeraj even makes house calls for those having difficulty with their green thumbs.
She describes growing food as an exciting hobby, and has added hot peppers, zucchini, eggplants and carrots to her crop of 70 tomato plants. And she says the experience doesn’t end with the growing season.
Until a few months ago, she and her husband were still enjoying sauces made from last year’s crop, which they freeze whole.
Jeraj and members of her tomato troupe are looking forward to experiencing everything tomato, along with sharing their bounty with Edmonton’s Food Bank, at Tuesday’s Tomato Extravaganza.
The event runs from 2-8 p.m. at the Enjoy Centre in St. Albert. Admission costs $5, although the event is free for children 11 years of age and younger. Whatever the age, the Tomato Extravaganza will offer something for everyone, including gardening for children.
Growers can enter their tomato bounty in contests for the heaviest, oddest-looking, best dressed, Group of Seven (think artistically diverse), and most laden single vine.
Local chefs will be on hand for cook-offs, and ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen will demonstrate how to preserve tomatoes, along with recipes for salsas, sauces, and even how to use green tomatoes, so participants can enjoy every bite of their crops.