Savor luscious tomatoes in shades of orange, yellow, green, purple and pink ? but rarely ever red ? Saturday at the Carroll County Farm Museum?s annual Tomato Tasting Day.
“It?s about more than just the red tomato. We?re not into red at all,” said Pat Brodowski, historian and educator at the Westminster museum. “We have the German green tomato ? they are just saturated with sugar, and you get sticky. We?ve got little yellow pear tomatoes the size of your thumb.”
Gardeners flaunt their fruits at the event, and the museum delivers concoctions and recipes for the daring ? including tomato sorbet, marmalade and pie. Those with less-sophisticated palates are provided with bread and lettuce to make sandwiches and salads.
The fruits come in different sizes, shapes and flavors, but they all share the heirloom distinction. That means they have pedigrees dating back 50 to 400 years, and have not been genetically altered.
Each tomato has its own chronicle ? like the Cherokee Purple, a large, smoky-flavored breed first harvested by the Indian tribe of the same name.
People might be surprised by some of the tomatoes, said gardener Chris Pensinger, who gardens at the museum and raises about 20 tomato varieties at her home.
She proved her point recently, when she tested the unsightly Aunt Ruby?s German Green tomato on her Sears repairman.
“He kind of looked at it, like, I?m a steak and potato man. But he took one bite and said, ?Wow, that is really sweet!? ” she said.
The event is sponsored by the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension?s Master Gardener?s program, which maintains an heirloom garden at the Farm Museum.
IF YOU GO
» The Tomato Tasting Day is a free event, held from noon to
1 p.m. Saturday in the Carroll County Farm Museum?s heirloom tomato garden at 500 S. Center St. in Westminster.
