Rutgers great tomato tasting event

Growing in a half barrel right outside my front door is a Rampapo tomato plant. The Rampapo tomato is a very tasty tomato that was developed in 1968 but all but disappeared from seed catalogs because it doesn’t produce a lot. What it does produce is delicious, but who wants a plant that only produces a small amount of tomatoes?

I do. And so do many other gardeners. In the past couple of years the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station has made the organically grown genuine Rampapo F1 hybrid seed available again. This Wednesday, August 26th, the Rutgers NJAES will have a great tomato tasting where you can taste the Rampapo and many of New Jersey’s favorite fruit.

From their press release:

19th Annual Great Tomato Tasting

at the Rutgers NJAES Snyder Farm

What: Great Tomato Tasting

Where: Snyder Research and Extension Farm, 140 Locust Grove Road, Pittstown, Hunterdon County, NJ

When: Wednesday – August 26, 2009 3pm – dusk (RAIN OR SHINE)

Back by popular demand, the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension proudly announce the Annual Snyder Farm Great Tomato Tasting, to be held on Wednesday August 26, 2009 from 3 pm – dusk. This year’s event will commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Research Farm, and includes the very popular tasting of both heirloom and hybrid tomatoes and wagon tours of the farm’s research plots.

In addition, Dr. Jim Simon, Rutgers University, will exhibit new varieties of basil available for tasting from his breeding program and Win Cowgill, Hunterdon Agricultural Agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, will display new varieties of both apple and peach from the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station available for taste testing as well.

The Melda C. Snyder Teaching Garden will showcase “chef” gardens of heirloom vegetables, a children’s garden, deer tolerant landscape plants, plants that can attract beneficial insects to your garden, the Rutgers ornamental plant and blueberry breeding programs, columnar varieties of peach trees for the home landscape and award-winning Jersey Grown™ daylilies.

Wagon tours, led by faculty and farm staff, will be available throughout the event highlighting Rutgers NJAES agricultural research. Rutgers NJAES faculty, staff, and Master Gardener volunteers will be available throughout the event to answer your gardening questions and to make your visit to our research farm a pleasurable and memorable one. More fun activities are planned so bring your camera.

Visitors are encouraged to bring canned or boxed non-perishable food items to support the Rutgers Against Hunger (RAH) program, http://rah.rutgers.edu/.

Registration – $5.00 per person (collected at event), children under 10 are free

Please RSVP to help us prepare for our visitors – We now have online registration to help reduce the registration line at the event.

Online registration https://njaes.rutgers.edu/rsvp/tomato or call 908-713-8980 and complete the form at the event.