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Fairfield Downtown Association

Fairfield tastes a multitude of tomatoes

By Sarah Arnquist
Copyright ©2005 Daily Republic

FAIRFIELD - Tomatoes come in all shapes and sides with all kinds of crazy names.

The black zebra, Charlie Chaplin, Julia Child, hillbilly, early girl and banana legs were just some of the 100 kinds of tomatoes featured at Fairfield's 14th annual Tomato Festival.

"I would never imagined there were so many kinds of tomatoes," said Pat Sonston, who came to sample tomatoes Saturday from Pinole with her husband, Obert Sonston.

They love tomatoes.

"We've tried growing them, and we're not successful, so we have to buy them," Pat Sonston said.

Danielle Smith, 19, volunteered to serve tomatoes for four hours Saturday, and she doesn't even like them. When asked which tomato looked most delicious, she pointed to the Cherokee purples.

"If I did like them, they look like something I would probably like," Smith said. "They look beefy."

Festival planners expected between 20,000 and 30,000 people to meander down Texas Street Saturday tasting tomatoes.

"The most surprising thing to me is that there are so many people here who don't even like tomatoes," Smith said.

Festivalgoers who weren't tomato aficionados had plenty of other tasty foods and entertainment to choose from. Two stages had musical entertainment from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dozens of vendors displayed arts and crafts, and some of the world's best barbecue sent shivers down the meat lover's spine.
The Tomato Festival included the West Coast Barbecue Championship. Meat cookers from all over California showed up Friday night to start marinating for Saturday's competition.

Dave Shaw and his team from Hercules never slept Friday night. Friday evening, they set up their eight-foot barbecue, trimmed the meat, started the fires and maintained the perfect temperature. At 2 a.m., Shaw marinated the meat, and at 5 a.m., he began cooking. By noon Saturday, the Texas native figured his ribs had reached perfection, but he surveyed his competitors and turned the meat again.

"We've got some stiff competition here," he said.

Back at Tomato Alley Fairfield Mayor Karin Macmillan sampled tomatoes in the locally grown competition. They all taste delicious, she said. Macmillan said she tasted tomato varieties that she had never heard of before.

"It's really interesting that the uglier they are the better they taste," she said.

Reach Sarah Arnquist at 427-5953 or sarnquist@dailyrepublic.net.