It's official - MAGTAG VII will be held on Saturday, August 18, 2012, at Southwest Area Park, in Baltimore County, MD. Note that we will be in Pavilion 2 this year - our usual spot, Pavilion 1, was already reserved. Pavilion 2 is the one farther away from the parking lot, behind the playground. Stay tuned for more info!

Tomato Folks, I talked to Cecelia and we are thinking that Saturday August the 18th would be a good day for this event. Let us know if the date will work for you. Greg

Mea, MAGTAG stands for Mid-Atlantic Tomato Gardeners Appreciation Gathering. This will be the second annual one, held on Saturday, August 25 at Southwest Area Park in Baltimore Highlands, MD (same location as last year). The festival includes a tomato tasting contest (In 2006 there were 82 different varieties), beer, wine, and soft drinks, grilled food (there are 4 grills at the pavilion), and a BLT bar. Anyone can attend and either bring homegrown tomatoes or a tomato-related dish (tomatoes used in the food do not have to be homegrown). We had about 35 attendees for the first MAGTAG, from NY, NJ, VA, and WV, as well as MD.

A few last minute comments: I just finished cooking the bacon for the BLT bar (nice and crispy for Luanne); still need to wash and tear the lettuce. The bad news is, I have no tomatoes of my own worth bringing. Nada. Zilch. Bupkis. The good news is, my co-worker Jennifer gave me a bunch of Better Boys or some other kind of hybrid she grew from plants for my BLT bar. She also grew a plum type, which I am calling "Jennifer's Mystery Roma" since she can't remember which variety it is. I went to Office Depot today and bought some marked-down name tags (since we forgot about them), and some raffle tickets! BTW, I've added another book to the raffle - William Alexander's "The $64 Tomato." Too bad we don't have a copy of Carolyn Male's "bible" to raffle off - for now I'll call it "The incomplete tomato library." $1 a chance for the aforementioned book, Amy Goldman's "Heirloom Tomato," and Tim Stark's "Heirloom." All proceeds will go to Trudi's Wintersown.org educational charity. (Trudy, are you there?) I'm heading over to that other tomato site now to post an identical message - see you all tomorrow!