By Michelle Fabio

On Thursday, April 24, tomato lovers will be converging on Andalusia, Alabama for a backyard tomato production workshop.

Topics covered will include soil and site preparation, transplanting, staking and caging, varieties of tomatoes, food safety, and preparation.

Stan Windham, Coffee County Extension Coordinator, said that the workshop was organized to help answer the many questions that have been coming in to his office about tomato growing.

“We always have phone calls from the public wanting Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

Tomatomania, the world’s largest tomato seedling sale, kicked off the weekend of March 29-30 in Encinitas, California.

What started out as a once-a-year event 18 years ago has now stretched into a 6-week affair with stops in Encino, Sonoma, Beverly Hills, Arcadia, and even an East Coast trip to Litchfield, Connecticut.

This seedling-buying event has consistently offered tomato connoisseurs Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

For those of you who live Down Under, you know that tomato-growing season is in full swing—and if you’re near the small town of Gunnedah in northwestern New South Wales, you might want to gear up for the National Tomato Day Contest to be held on January 13.

Contestants can win prizes in the 29th annual competition for all kinds of tomato superlatives: reddest, biggest, oddest-shaped, widest, best, and this year’s new category—tastiest.

The National Tomato Day Contest came about when Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

DonorsChoose.org recently ran a month-long Blogger Challenge to raise money for school classroom projects in low-income communities.

More than a hundred bloggers took part and raised $420,000 to benefit over 75,000 students, but one blogger stood out from the rest by raising over $100,000, reaching nearly 16,000 children.

The tomato suit didn’t hurt either.

Sarah Bunting, popular blogger and humor columnist with a domain name close to our hearts (Tomato Nation), not only took part in the challenge (Bunting’s long been a supporter of DonorsChoose.org), but she also promised to walk through New York City in a tomato suit if her readers were able to raise more than $40,000.

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By Michelle Fabio

It may be no Tomatina, Spain’s famous tomato-throwing contest, but tiny Guyra, New South Wales, Australia (population about 2,000) is holding its first ever Great Tomato Crushing Event as part of its Christmas Street Parade and Carnival on December 2.

What is Guyra’s special relationship with tomatoes?

A few years ago, because of its unique geographic position (it’s one of the highest towns in Australia), Guyra was chosen to be the home of Australia’s largest and most advanced greenhouse facilities.
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By Michelle Fabio

Every summer day, eighty-year-old Sam Shapiro, former Treasurer of the state of Maine, tends to his 300 tomato plants with love, affection, and the noble intention of donating proceeds from their sales to a local cancer care center and youth club.

In his garden, Shapiro raises heirloom, Early Girl, Big Bite, and Better Boy, putting two shovelfuls of compost in each hole, he says.

When they’re good and ripe, he offers them to passersby at the end of his driveway, where he keeps a box for customers to drop their dollars—Shapiro’s tomatoes go for $2 a pound.
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