Little Tomato Wins Big at Wenatchee Tomato Gala

Suppose you drove by the WSU Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center on Western this past Saturday. In that case, you might have seen the 15th Annual Tomato Gala buzzing with over 100 tomato fanatics celebrating the juiciest tomatoes in the valley.

The WSU Chelan-Douglas Master Gardeners hosted this free, flavorful fest where Sun Sugar, a sweet golden cherry tomato, clinched top honors. 

The bold, meaty Black Krim heirloom snagged runner-up among 91 ballots. 

In the Heirloom category, Pineapple and Paul Robeson trailed Black Krim, while Sun Gold took runner-up to Sun Sugar in the cherry tomato category. 

Early Girl and Early Doll topped the hybrids, and Martino’s Roma got the most votes in the paste tomato division, followed closely by San Marzano. 

These tasty winners will sprout anew at the Master Gardeners’ Plant Sale next April.

What does a Master Gardener grow in her backyard?

I got to spend some time with Connie Mehmel, who’s been a Master Gardener and volunteer instructor at Washington State University’s Wenatchee extension since 2010.

Connor: So, you’re a master gardener?

Connie Mehmel: I'm a master gardener…And I'm a vegetable gardener. I've always enjoyed plants that I can eat. Yes. 

Connor: Do you have a garden in your backyard? 

Connie: I have a garden in my backyard, and I always try to get enough tomatoes and hot peppers that I can make salsa. My daughter-in-law is Latina, and I have found the salsa recipe that she likes, so I feel proud of myself that I was able to accomplish that. 

Connor: So, what's growing in your backyard that works great with that salsa recipe?

Connie: My favorite tomatoes we're making salsa are called Cuore di Bue tomatoes (an Italian heirloom tomato variety, also known as "oxheart tomato" due to its heart shape). It's large for a paste tomato, and it is delicious. I find that a lot of the paste tomatoes are not very juicy, because you don't want that if you're going to make salsa, yes. But the Cuore di Bue is also delicious. You can put it in your salad, you can and it makes excellent salsa.  And the peppers, I like something very spicy, but not so spicy that you can't taste the flavor. I've come to like Aleppo peppers, a pepper from Syria. And they're mild until they turn red, and then they're nice and spicy, but you can still taste that peppery taste. So that's my preference. 

Connor: You’re growing Aleppos in your backyard?

Connie:  I do, yes, and they're growing well this year. 

Connor: So all kinds of great volunteers are here today with four different types of tomato varieties on display: heirloom, hybrid, cherry, and paste, which we talked about earlier, being a tomato to cook sauces with. Can you elaborate on each, starting with the heirloom tomatoes, which are more of an ancient variety? 

Connie: Well, there are heirloom tomatoes and then there are tomatoes that we call open-pollinated. And the difference between the two of them is that the heirlooms have names, and they've been around for, say, 50 years or more, but an heirloom is an open-pollinated tomato, and what that means is it pollinates itself. So if you save the seeds from an heirloom tomato or an open-pollinated tomato, you will get roughly the same type of tomato that you got from the parent plant. Hybrid tomatoes are artificially pollinated, and they are bred for things like disease resistance, reliability, productivity, and a lot of good things you can get out of hybrid tomatoes. But if you save the seeds, you don't know what you're going to get, because it won't look like the parent. But you might like to get it. It won't be the hybrid. Next are the cherry tomatoes. They’re just a very small tomato. The characteristic of these is that most cherry tomatoes are quite sweet. 

Connor: Thank you for sharing your passion. 

Connie Mehmel: Well, thank you for interviewing me about tomatoes. I hope growers out there would like to grow them. 

Much thanks to Master Gardener Coordinator, Marco Martinez, Connie Mehmel, and all of the other master gardeners and volunteers who put on a fun event.