Tomato To-mah-to

Last Sunday, along with our friend Lise and her dad, we attended the CT Slow Food chapter's annual tomato tasting feast called Tomato To-mah-to. This largest heirloom tomato tasting in the U.S. took place at the beautiful and intimate Upper Forty Farm in Cromwell and featured 100 or so vine-ripened, organically-grown heirloom and old-fashioned hybrid varieties of tomatoes from Upper Forty as well as Urban Oaks Organic Farm in New Britain. Chefs from several area restaurants were there serving up tastings of their tomato-inspired creations, and tomatoes and other fresh produce were available for purchase.

We tasted as many tomatoes as we possibly could. There were tomatoes of different shapes - round, oval, even tipped at the end. Some were sweet, some were tart, some were sweet and tart. Some tasted like other things, like pineapples or oranges. There were green tomatoes, orange tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes, purple tomatoes, and striped tomatoes. There were huge, big, medium, small and tiny tomatoes. And we loved the names! Our favorite tomatoes included "Sugary" and "Sungold" (both types of cherry tomatoes) as well as "Black Zebra" and "Orange Strawberry" heirlooms.

All in all, we had a great time, despite the rainy weather. The day was a testament to the wonder of August's favorite harvest. Check out our photos.

The Grand Tasting Table - over 100 types of tomatoes cut and ready to be tasted. Which is your favorite?

Chefs from Pond House Cafe in West Harford offered this tasty tidbit of tomato jams on savory shortbread.

Chefs from Firebox Restaurant in Hartford made this wonderful tomato flatbread.

There were plenty of tomatoes for sale!!!

Peppercorn's Grill Chef makes fresh mozzarella. Soooo good with tomatoes!