While there’s certainly lots of confusion about whether tomatoes are a fruit or a vegetable, organizers for the Tasty Tomato festival say there won’t be much confusion about whether or not this year’s event will be a success.
The event, which has been taking place for 11 years in Columbia, is happening in late July after being put on hold for the last two years due to the pandemic and after organizers feared the pandemic would permanently end the festival.
"(The old festival) was so fun. There's just such a life and an energy to it and you know I think that has been missed," said Becca Smith, the director of Sustainable Midlands, a decade-old local nonprofit that seeks to educate and advocate for sustainable practices by holding different events around the city, namely the annual Tasty Tomato Festival.
Tasty Tomato Festival focuses on, you guessed it, tomatoes — home-grown and freshly picked from farms around South Carolina, according to Smith. The types of tomatoes available to taste will depend on the weather, Smith said.
"Being able to taste a tomato that was grown in Carolina soil versus a tomato that's shipped from California, eight or nine days ago ... a truly fresh tomato, even if it is your traditional red, it just has so much more of a powerful kind of homegrown taste to it," Smith said.
In years past the Tasty Tomato festival, which hosts a variety of vendors and live music, was held at City Roots, an organic farm in the Rosewood neighborhood. Then it moved to Earlewood Park and this year it moves less than a mile up the street to NoMa Warehouse where the event will be spread out across businesses in the area like Indah Coffee.
There will be a tomato tasting, drinks available for purchase and activities for kids like a face painting station and a bouncy house.
And while fun activities are a plus, the event's main focus is on education and sustainability, with speakers from different environmental organizations giving presentations and with all of the tomatoes from the festival coming from within the state.
"I'm hoping to engage in new ways, you know, that are meaningful and long lasting so we can elevate some local food vendors and keep these conversations going on how to support local even after the Tasty Tomato festival (is over)," said Smith, who has run the organization since the fall of last year. The Columbia-native first got involved with the organization after performing at the 2019 Tasty Tomato Festival.
The night before the main festival on Saturday, Sustainable Midlands will host a smaller, ticketed evening event featuring tomato-based small plates and wine pairings at Gardner's Outpost on Devine Street. Tickets to that event at $50 and include admission to the Saturday festival.
Tasty Tomato Festival will happen on July 23 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. General admission to the event is $10 in advance and $15 on the day of the festival. Children ages 10 and under get in for free. The festival will take place at NoMa Warehouse located at 2222 Sumter St and more information can be found at tastytomatofestival.org.
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June 16, 2022 at 08:00PM
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Tasty Tomato Festival returns to Columbia after two years on pause - Charleston Post Courier
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