I'm interested! I grow about 4 or 5 different kinds, and am always looking to try new flavors. I think it's a great idea!

Gotta, where abouts are you in WNY? Also, please see this thread in the Tomato forum:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0423541229316.html

The GW Tomato forum has many of these "taste-offs" put together, the biggest 2 are the CHOPTAG (Cincinnati) and Tomatopalooza (North Carolina.) Spawned since these 2 were many others (Mid-Atlantic, SE Texas, California, Midwest, etc.) I was a regular poster on the Tomato forum for the past 4-5 years or so, and many people don't know it exists, as well as other forums on other sites about growing tomatoes. There should be enough people between all these forums to put together something in upstate NY. And if it's late enough in the summer, (mid-late August) I should be able to contribute 80+ different varieties to taste, plus others will surely be able to add to the varieties listed--- I'd expect over 100 varieties easily possible!

Mark

I live near Batavia. There are some people in our garden club that might be interested too.

Mark,
Brenda is a great fun gardener that attends the WNY plant swap I told you about some time ago. That would be wonderful to have her and friends come.
I also just happened to get an email from Rob from Niagara yesterday about the Bond Lake plant sale! I told him about the tomato party planning that was going on. He said he would like to attend.
Remy

I have had lousy tomatoes since trying to grow them up here. So I am interested in knowing what is the best for our area.

Penny

I'm trying a few new varieties this year I'd be interested.

Penny,
It would be great if you could come even tomatoless. You could try lots of tomatoes to know what to grow next year!

Kathy,
I'm glad to see you want to come too!
Remy

Well I'm not going to impress you with my tomatoes but i'll be glad to participate lol.

Thanks Remy,
I would be interested just to learn what does do best up here. I always used to have great tomatoes with fantastic taste. Last year my tomatoes tasted like the mealy nasty things you get in the grocery store during the winter...yuk

Penny

I'm in Buffalo, and I'm growing at least 12 types this year I think.

Paul Robeson, Kelloggs, Sun Gold, Aunt Ruby's Green, German Red Strawberry, Olkpaka, Roma, Classica, and some others I'm not sure what.

Count me in. I've always wanted to attend one! Please email details to jessica @ autumnrain.com if anything develops

Hi Mark! I'm in Buffalo too. I'm not sure how mine will do this year. I just moved to the city and it's my first time planting toms on a balcony, but I'd love to come. You might want to contact Urban Roots here in Buffalo too. There are probably a lot of people who'd be interested. They had a fantastic hierloom tom fundraiser last year. Please keep me posted.

mandyb

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Roots

I'd be interested in attending. Each year I try 3-5 new to me heirlooms with varying degrees of success. I usually take them to the WNY swap because I end up with so many more than I could possibly use.
lil

Mark,
See we can have a party yet : )
I have vacation already reserved for the weekend of Aug. 18(CHOPTAG party) on through to the 26th. So if we can plan it for either the 25th or 26th, it would work out great for me. I would have lots of time to organize things that week. If not, I'll do what I can.

Ruth,
I remember all the extra plants you had last year at the swap! You are worse than me with the extras,lol. It would be great to have you attend.

Mandy,
Hi! Are you the same Mandy that came to the plants swaps a couple years ago? If you are, my lupine from you is still going strong and my Ruby Port Columbine looked great last year! It would be nice to see you again : )

Heebiejeebie,
That's a great assortment and almost totally different than my list! I hope you can attend also.

Penny,
That's too bad about the tasteless tomatoes. See, this will be perfect for you!

Kathy,
We're not going for size here! lol.(Though that might be a nice little extra thing to do at the party.)I bet you end up growing something someone else just loves : )
Remy

Actually I always grow the same tomatoes as lilylouise - because I get them from her at the plant swap! Thanks, they were delicious!

Remy-I always thought size matters!!!!!!!!!!! ok i better quit before i get myself in trouble lol. And I do think that is Mandy from our original plant swap. Hey Mandy come out come out wherever you are!

I would be interested.
jerryc123@gmail.com
I am new to tomato gardening, but am trying Caspian Pink, Black Crim, and Brandywine this year.
Keep me posted.
By the way, what is the WNY Plant Swap?

Thanks
Jerry

Hi Mark,
I tried contacting you over on the "other' forum, but I have not heard back. Time is flying by, we need to make plans. I hope you still want to have a party. You are the orignial mastermind of all of this : )
Hope to hear from you soon,
Remy

Hey Remy,
My (your) tomato plants are taking over my garden LOL! All joking asside the husk tomato and the other heirloom that I got from you at the swap are monsters. I think I have two regular tomatoes growing now but oodles of blooms and the husk is loaded with blooms too. I sure hope they produce. I have had a terrible year flower wise with my plants...they have all been late blooming this year so I hope I still have time to get a few tomatoes.

Penny

Sorry, forgot all about this forum!! OK, I'm in still but don't know what will be ripe... I was about 2 weeks behind schedule, some didn't finally get transplanted until the 2nd week of June.

Here's the list, first dozen or so are cherries, the rest were sorted originally by smaller/salad sized, then color then paste then dwarf but I think some got reformatted to order they were planted:

Bi-Color Cherry
Isis Candy
Evan's Purple Pear
Haley's Purple Comet
Sungold F1
SunPlum F5
Quartz Multiflora (pink)
Gary Staley's Potato Leaf
Santa F1/F2
Galina's
Large Multiflora
Cherokee Bi-Color
Pearl's Yellow Pink
Rhoades Heirloom
Black
Spudakee Purple
Spudatula
Green Giant
Grub's Mystery Green
Kellogg's Breakfast
Bear Claw
Dora
Dr. Lyle
Flathead Monster
Gary O' Sena
Genuine Italian Pot. Leaf
Grandpa Charlie
Gregori's Altai (pink)
Italian Purple
McKinley
Olive Hill
Aker's West Virginia
Ashleigh
Brandywine O.T.V. "Off The Vine")
Craig's Potato Leaf
Dr. Walter
Red Brandywine
Sunset Red Horizon
Elbe
Golden Queen USDA Strain
Spark's Yellow
Beauty King
Berkeley Tie Dye
Black & Brown Boar
Large Barred Boar
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye
Jagged Leaf
Azoychka
Brad's Black Heart
Roughwood Golden Plum (F15)
Sarnowski Polish Plum
Wuhib
Angora
Jaune Flamee
Korney's Cross F6 Black
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Japanese Trifele Black
Czech
Heshpole (F6)
Oleyar's German
Spudleaf 117 (F3)
Anna Banana Russian
Plum Lemon aka Wonderlight
Mountain Princess
Grappoli d'Inverno
Red House Free Standing
Kimberly
Sophie's Choice
New Big Dwarf
Green Striped White Flowered Potato Leaf Dwarf
Fernleaf Pale Dwarf (my only plant died.)
Variegated Dwarf
Variegated
Wooly Dwarf
Extreme Dwarf #1
Extreme Dwarf #2
Hirsute Tri-pinnate
White Top Dwarf
Dumpy

A friend who won the West Seneca Best Garden Contest a couple years ago is also growing some of the above for me plus maybe a couple others I didn't have room for here.

I just bumped up the other thread in the Tomato Forum that I linked to earlier in this thread. Please stand up & be counted, there too!

Mark

Penny,
It has been an odd year. I'm glad to hear they are doing do so well. I'm sure there are quite a few flowers on the plants right now. You'll get lots of tomatoes forming, don't worry.

Mark,
I'm so glad you responded! Well, The date to have the party would be August 26. The week after that is Labor Day weekend. So the next day to have the party would be Sept. 8 or 9. We need to decide this now : )
Remy

Mark,
Lol! I just checked the Tomato forum and I saw you said tentative date is Aug. 26th.
Remy

Actually, we'd probably have more varieties to try in September... so maybe we should see what people think?

Being at minimum a month away, it's still hard to gauge what I'll have ripe on August 26th. Right now I'm just starting to get ripe cherries on about maybe 40-50% or so of the [cherry] plants--a few Sungold, Galina's, SunPlum, Haley's Purple Comet & Santa... Besides cherries, I think 1 starting to turn on Anna Banana Russian, a couple on Mountain Princess, plus have had ripe ones on Kimberly for a few weeks. That's about it. Some plants have very few fruit set because of the heatwave we had earlier in the month. And many plants have cracked green fruits from that big downpour we had last week...

I'm inclined to agree with Korney that September might be better. I have pretty much the same story to tell-lots of blossoms, some tomatoes and amazingly I only have one duplicate (Brandywine).

Hi All,
I'm posting this again:

I wrote the following for Mark and everyone over on another forum, but I know some people don't go there. Hopefully this answers a few questions and if makes a few questions arise, great. It is always good to work the kinks out in advance.

The cottage is very easy to get to because it is the same exit and direction as Beaver Island State Park.
The cottage has lots of space. People can park on the front yard as long as it stays fairly dry like it has been. There is a lot of street parking too. The back yard is huge. You can easily fit a few hundred people. There is a covered porch that accomodates quite a few people. The garage is also clean and normally is filled with tables for parties. There is also a wooden swingset and toys for kids. Beyond the backyard is woods with hiking paths which is still part of the property. There is a fire pit. The cottage is like a small ranch with full kitchen and a couple of bathrooms. There are lots of excess tables and chairs, a couple grills, most all supplies needed for a party.
I was envisioning a party advertised here, on GW, and invite local friends we know, but not outside of that being that it is private property. So it would be a party for growers to celebrate their harvest with other gardeners, not people looking for an event to attend. I believe this is how CHOPTAG began.
People would bring a dish to eat or other supplies like pop if they chose not to make food, and tomatoes they grew for a tasting. We could vote on them, maybe even by categories. Of course, I will be stealing any ideas I can from the CHOPTAG tasting.(I am going to their party.)
Remy

I just got this through the "grapvine"... I don't want to undo anyone's plans, I have no personal involvement in this event, this is just for information purposes. Is salsa contest too, and fundraiser for SPCA.

THE GREAT TOMATO STAKES!!!
Best tasting tomato by our panel of celebrity judges
Sunday, Aug. 26th. 1:00 PM sharp @
The Fireside Inn, 12133 Vaughn St. (Rte. 240, East Concord, NY 14055

For more information call Marcia @ 592-0802 or e-mail nottfarm@earthlink.net

Remy
I assume the cottage is on Grand Island. Is the cottage someones home? Are there signs that say this way to the cottage. Maybe I missed simething somewhere along the line.

Penny

Hi Penny,
Because of the other event, Mark and I are planning for Sat. Sept. 8. We still have to make a formal announcement though.
The cottage is extremely east to get to(much easier than Tara's, lol). On the day of the party, I plan to have a sign at the road.
I'll email you.
Remy

OK, It's 10 days away...

Who is attending for sure?

Who thinks they are probably or most likely attending?

Who is thinking about it but still undecided?

We are hoping to have somewhere between 100-150 varieties to taste. I will probably also try to bring my seed collection if possible for those looking for something not represented.

There is very little duplication between my 2007 varieties and Remy's 2007 varieties--maybe just a few.

Post if you are coming or thinking about it, and what you may be bringing.

For out-of-towners, Grand Island is about 10-15 minutes from Niagara Falls or Buffalo, many can plan a vacation around this weekend, with tourist sites, casinos, nightlife, entertainment, attractions, factory outlet malls/shopping, great local food, etc. Rooms nearby are as low as around $100 for 2 nights stay if you want to make a Friday to Sunday weekend out of it...

Thanks.

Mark

Also see these threads, which I'll cross-post this post:

tomato harvest party!!!!!

WNY Tomato Party!!!!!

msbuffalo14210, I attended that East Concord event, it was very nice. At least 3 of the winning varieties will be at the Grand Island event too, barring any unforeseen problems here.

Mark,
Off the top of my head, I may be forgetting people.
You (and girlfriend too I assume)
Me and my husband
Gottagarden and kids(maybe Mulchy too)
Gardenfrog and husband
Marcia from the East Concord event and possible guest
My sis-in-law plus family
Hilde plus ?
Rob from Niagara and wife
The Browns plus possible friend who grows many varieties
Penguingardener and some family
Zana(and possible Sorrelina if she is back in Toronto)
Tomatoaddict and possibly her husband

I'm still trying to convince Husky to stop by with her husband for a beer : )

It would be great if Lilylouise decided to come : )

If you are still sitting on the fence about going, remember there are prizes! Be part of an historic event! the first Buffalo/Niagara tomato harvest party : )
The food and company will be great.
Remy