Tomato festival coming up at Farmers' Market

Let's talk tomatoes. The market is seeing lots of tomatoes. The amount of tomatoes, as well as the number of varieties, is remarkable. You can get green ones (fried green tomatoes), ripe red ones, yellow ones, heirloom varieties, all kinds of curry tomatoes and even yellow Romas.

So if you're hungry for a tomato, come out to the market. You can find green zebras and black prince, yellow pear, black cherry, brown berry, yellow Romas, jetstars, lemon boys and celebrities.

Let's talk about celebrities. We have two local celebs coming to the market on Saturday, Aug. 6 for the annual Tomato Festival from 8 a.m.-noon. Chris Maycumber, local Ace Hardware owner and chef, will provide a cooking demonstration with all the dishes featuring vendors' tomatoes.

The tentative line-up of dishes will be a garlic tomato egg scramble, tomato bread, or a tomato pie and a tomato soup. Yes, there will be free sampling.

Market-goers will be judging the tomato contest -- sampling different varieties of tomatoes entered by vendors and having a people's choice for best-tasting tomato.

The second local celebrity will be Ms. Elaine Buerge, supervising and judging a children's chalk art contest. There will be two age groups, 4-7, and 8-12. There will be participation prizes for all. The top three in each age group will receive a coupon for honey bears -- redeemable with the market honey vendor.

Produce coming into the market now includes tomatoes of all kinds, summer squashes, peppers of all kinds, sweet onions, garlic, herbs, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, cantaloupes, peaches, watermelons, potatoes, carrots and blackberries in limited amounts. Market shoppers will also find baked goods, jellies, honey and craft items. Buy local, buy fresh. Mark your calendars for the Aug. 6 tomato festival. See you at the market.