Tomato Day  – July 28th from 7 am—12 pm

Do you love everything tomato? Have you struggled to grow great tomatoes? The 23rd Annual Tomato Day is for you! The event will be held at the Sedgwick County Extension Education Center at 21st and Ridge in Wichita on Saturday, July 28th from 7:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. This event features information on selecting, planting, maintaining, cooking with tomatoes.  Admission is free.

Enter a Tomato Day Contest!

Gardeners, bring your home grown tomatoes and enter them in a contest to win a gift certificate to the Kansas Grown! Farmers Market.

Contest Categories:

• Largest (by weight, single tomato)
• Ugliest (single tomato, please no rotten tomatoes)
• Best Heirloom Specimen (single tomato)
• Standard Tomatoes (Plate of 3)
• Roma or Plum Tomatoes (Plate of 3)
• Cherry or Pear Tomatoes (Plate of 6)
• Cluster of Grape Tomatoes (Still on the cluster)
• Fresh Salsa (please bring recipe)
• Preserved Salsa (must meet USDA standards, please include recipe)

For more information on contests, please visit http://tinyurl.com/TomatoDay2012.

Stuff the Truck for Plant a Row for the Hungry

Help us fill a truck with fresh produce for the Kansas Food Bank. Donate at least 1 lb. of fresh produce at the Plant a Row for the Hungry tent outside 4-H Hall during Tomato Day and you will be entered into a door prize drawing. You can donate produce from your garden or that you purchase, but we do ask that it be fresh produce.

Gardening and Cooking Seminars at Tomato Day

Seminars in Demonstration Garden:

8:00   Composting Demonstration

8:30   Demonstration Garden Tour

9:15   Shade Tree Tour in the Arboretum (meet in the Meadowlark Room)

9:15   Grilling Pizza: Beyond Cheese & Pepperoni

10:30   Raised Bed Gardening

11:00   Beyond Tomatoes – Gardening in the Fall

11:30   Savor the Season, Eating Seasonally in Kansas – Natalie Fullerton, Our Local Food Program

Seminars in the Sunflower Room:

8:30  Cooking with Tomatoes – Damian Lehman, executive chef of Wichita Country Club

10:30   Canning Q & A

11:00  Preserving Tomatoes Beyond Canning