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Community Corner

Tomato Festival at Long Hill Library

Celebrate the Jersey Tomato!

The NJ tomato harvest season may be a little late this year but the Long Hill Township Library Tomato Festival will be in full swing on Saturday, July 26 at Noon.  Noted food historian and tomato expert Judith Krall-Russo will speak on “The Jersey Tomato – From Cherry to Beefsteak.

The Tomato Festival also features a Tomato Contest.  Bring your homegrown tomato to the festival. Ribbons will be awarded for largest, smallest, funniest and most perfect tomato.  And it wouldn’t be a Tomato Festival without food. Jersey-fresh Tomato delights will be served.

Krall-Russo’s love of food, history and New Jersey are revealed in her talk.  “I think people really enjoy learning about the history of food,” she said. “It’s something we all enjoy, and as New Jersey residents, the tomato is iconic. It’s fun to hear about its earliest beginnings.  When you walk into a supermarket today you take for granted that you can buy produce anytime you want but there is a story behind those tomatoes,” Krall-Russo said.

Krall-Russo will also discuss  why everyone loves the Jersey tomato, where the tomato originated, how it became one of New Jersey’s favorite crops, the New Jersey tomato packing industry, heirloom varieties, modern hybrids and the folklore attached to this fruit (yes, fruit!).

Krall-Russo will also discuss  why everyone loves the Jersey tomato, where the tomato originated, how it became one of New Jersey’s favorite crops, the New Jersey tomato packing industry, heirloom varieties, modern hybrids and the folklore attached to this fruit (yes, fruit!).

The Tomato Festival is free and open to the public. Registration is requested. Sign up at the library or call 908-647-2088. The Long Hill Library is located at 917 Valley Road, Gillette, NJ.
 
“The Jersey Tomato” program is funded by the Horizons Speakers Bureau of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.







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