yup- though it's craig lehoulier and lee somebody who organize it, not TJ. It's called tomatopalooza and they post a notice on here each year. Last couple were end of july or early august. It moves around a bit, but is always in the area somewhere.

Slightly off topic and maybe not the point of the post but I have a few varieties of heirloom seeds here. Nothing extremely interesting but I have German Johnson, Rutgers, Mr. Stripey, and Brandywine Red. We have a gardening shop down here that sells them in bulk. They generally have more varieties but I got there late. If you would like for me to mail you some of those I would be more than happy to. Just shoot me an email with your address and how many of each you require.

Tomatopalooza is most often in July and recently has been held at a picnic shelter at Lake Wheeler park. Either Craig or Lee will post the info on GardenWeb when the details are known. Craig has been out at the Raleigh State Farmers Market selling his heirloom seedlings and we talked about all of it but I don't remember if the date was set for this summer.

My only involvement is that I submitted the name "Tomatopalooza" when they posted requests for a name of their event. I think it was also submitted by other people. Same thing happened to me when some friends asked for help naming their only son. The only rule was that his initials had to T. J. and they didn't want a Junior or II. I submitted Toe Jam and thought I was the most clever person in the world until they told me that out of 30 submissions THREE of them were for Toe Jam. By the way, they named him something totally boring and normal.

Looking forward to the post announcing it. Hopefully I'll be in town for it. Those tomatoes were delicious!

Looks like this year's Tomatopalooza is set for July 31 at Lake Wheeler. Craig's blog has info: http://nctomatoman.weebly.com/from-the-vine-vegetable-seedings-2010.html. I got some nice stuff from him this year at the market--tomatoes, purple tomatillos and a cool purple hot pepper 'Little Nubian'. I'm also growing a lot of heirloom tomatoes I started from seed. It would be so cool if I had something to contribute to the tasting this year, but my track record with tomatoes isn't good. Still, I keep trying!

Carla, do purple tomatillos taste different from the green ones? We've recently become very fond of the green at my house.

I really don't know, but they sure look gorgeous in the photos. That won me, and of course I hope they taste great too. This'll be my first time growing tomatillos. Besides the two purples (I understand you need at least two for fruit set), I've got going a pretty zany-looking "giant" fruited kind called Cisineros. They're the photo at the top at this link: http://www.tomatogrowers.com/tomatillos.htm. Crazy, huh?

When I've grown them in the past I don't remember much difference in the flavor. The purple goes away a bit when you cook them.

I don't think you need two for pollination but it could be that there are enough "wild" Physallis relatives around to handle the job.

Hi all!

Tomatopalooza[tm] (Thanks again for the great name John!) will be held on July 31st this year.
Currently it's scheduled to be at Lake Wheeler, but we may
change that as I couldn't get the large shelter reserved
this year. Also, we are trying to decide the format of
this year's event. One item we are considering is to
require registration to attend. (Still no charge, but it'll
help us to know how many folks are planning to come.)

For the latest, most accurate, up to date news, go to
tomatopalooza.org. Once the plans are finalized, the information
will be posted there. You can also email me if you have
questions.

Lee

P.S. I have been told Our State magazine will be doing an
article on the event.... Should be interesting to read!