Odd tomato
brownish that was w/ your black cherries- What was it supposed to be
Mary

I grew the Box Car Willie -
BH- Bonnie Harper - gardnwatch

I had a great time at my first tomato festival.
Good food, good fun and great weather.
Thanks, Cecilia

Cecilia, there had better be a MAGTAG 2009, is all I'm saying. The Alfies AND the Alfies' friends, who were going to come but then visited us instead when we couldn't come, were all very bummed at missing MAGTAG 2008.

(I'm surprised to see two white tomatoes in the top ten list. I'm growing my 85-year-old neighbor's Della Whites (his name for them), and while their being local heirlooms is in their favor, their being entirely lacking in taste is not. They're not so bad dried, though.)

Thanks for speaking up, Bonnie! I'm glad you and Mary gave Greg at least a little bit of competition.

Mary, the oddball tomato that you found in my black cherries was supposed to be a Cherokee Chocolate from Tomato Growers' Supply. Several people on T0mat0ville.c0m have said that they got similar non-Cherokee Chocolate plants from TGS, so I guess their seed was crossed. One person who grew it found it bland, but I rather like it. I'm debating saving seeds. Do you want some? Maybe we could dehybridize it and call it "Cherokee Chocolate Chip."

Cheryll and I had a wonderful time. I'm sure we'll all have get togethers soon when we are asked to give our rendition of the national anthem at sporting events. That was over the top. hee hee Hank (Sponge Bob shirt)

Cecilia, HAve not tried it yet, but when I do, I plan to save seeds
Mary

Cecelia,
Thank you for all that you did to put this together. It was fun. Great to put a name to the online presence of so many people. It was my first time at this event and I enjoyed sampling so many of the tomatoes I have wanted to try. Some that sounded so wonderful in the seed catalogs were just ok while others were even better than their descriptions. It was wonderful to learn that there are so many other people who are crazy for tomatoes like I am.
Thanks!
Gladys

Sounds like a great time was had. Sorry I was kept away by other pressing issues.

Tomato Folk,

Thanks much to Cecilia for all her hard work and for bringing all her kin; I had no idea she was one of 7. Cecilia's had folks sign in and she said we had 42 people. That beat's last years count which was 36 people attending. It made it fun to have so many folks from so many places. (HI, NJ, PA, VA and MD).

The number of tomato varieties was down to somewhere around 50 varieties which was partly because we started a week earlier while the tomatoes started a week later. NO ONE TALKED TO THE TOMATOES! They were all in the dressing room discussing this before the show. How rude they said ;-)

Also we were missing Trudi who contributes so many and Dunkel (Doug) from WV, who was with us 2 years ago and grew about 60 plants of many different WV varieties but didn't like to eat them. (huh?)

I counted the empty beer bottles from my homebrew that I was "recycling" last night and 29 were empty. That's impressive! I didn't know that folks would care much except for the novelty of the idea.

As far as how the competition went, I was hoping to test the quality of the "Emily" tomato in this competition and as you can see from Cecilia's results "Emily" came in 4th place. Don't let this fool you because it was the highest ranking Large Pink beefsteak among the winners.

Over the past 3 years we have always found that cherries have come in way ahead. This suprised some folks that are part of other gatherings. Perhaps it is a Maryland weather or soil issue? Perhaps, statistically 3 years is too small of a sample? Black Cherry and Sungold are always up top and other cherries are in the top ten that include Dr. Carolyn Pink and White Current.

This puts "Emily" on top of a whole class of tomatoes that includes, red and pink, large hearts and beefsteaks. Of course this only one competition and I doubt that it will be repeated next year. If it does and this tomato continues to produce with the same size and vigor, I would say that this a variety worth keeping. I have been debating this question since it seems like "Just another" large pink beefsteak to add to so many others that are already so good. Hopefully it will stand the test of time.

The parents of this variety are Prue and Marianna' Peace. These are good parents. On that note, one of the winners from last year that was also a cross from similar parents but the F3s segregated so much this year that it was not the same at all from last year. Too bad really but some of those lines still seem interesting and there's always next year :-)

The "Penny" method of judging has one distinct weakness. That is that it favors early entries in popular locations. We could dampen these effects by having enterants interlace their entries with other competetors on other tables.

I may add that there was general agreement from the regulars that his was the most fun we had at a MAGTAG event so far. It seems that many thing were in our favor this year. The weather was perfect.

Hope to see you all next year.

Greg

Cecilia, Thanks for all your hard work putting this event together and for the directions and helpful emails!

Greg, Your Black Cherry and White Currant blew me away! Can't wait to swap seeds.

To all the lovely folks I met at MAGTAG,
Thank you so much for making me feel so welcome and sharing your wonderful tomatoes and friendship! I had a wonderful time and wished I had more time to talk to everyone.
Aloha from almost 5,000 miles away in Zone 11,
Ann

Perhaps there should be a set time for the start and end of tasting rather than straggled as gardeners show up. Perhaps 11-12 or 12-1
What ever works best for the organizers
Mary

Please check out my new thread entitled "Photos of MAGTAG 2008." Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of MAGTAG 2008

Thanks for all who worked hard to put it together. I was too tired this year to contribute much (I had to fit MAGTAG into the 36 hour window I had at home between assorted business trips)but it was fun as always.

I have some ideas about how to keep Greg from rigging the voting next year :-)

Lynn T and I will be growing Emily next year - I hope we'll have a report and some to taste...

Lynn T and Ann,

I am complemented by your desire to grow this plant but....

Realize that the seeds are F4 meaning that they may not be stable. The Plant that produced the largest tomato, comes from Emily "B" and I believe all of the tomatoes I brought to the competition were from either Emily "B" or Emily "C". I also have an Emily "A". At this point they all seem the same.

My concern is that we may produce multiple strains of the same variety, some that are good and some that are not. If that happens then I will have lost control of what is called "Emily". It could end up being confusing and give the varity a bad reputation.

Please be mindful of this and only take seeds from me or from the largest tomato that I gave to Lynn that we know is Emily "B". This is my favorite of the 3 plants so far.

Next year we can compare them and select seeds from the best ones for next years trials. Also make sure to start lots of the plants and notice the leaf type. If it varies widely this shows considerable instability. The leaf type should be a droopy Potato Leaf. Please select only ones that have this characteristic if you want to continue to call it "Emily".

thanks,
Your tomato bud,

Greg

Tomato Folks,

Let me add to my last post that I am happy to send folks seed for Emily. Of the three F3 plants I grew I named them Emily A, B and C. "A" died early of disease but still produced. I am afraid to distribute this one for fear of spreading disease.

I am happy to send folks seed for Emily B or C, however, I ask that folks either participate in the trial of these seeds at MAGTAG or be willing to accept the seeds we find produced the best version of Emily at our trials if they want to maintain the name "Emily".

If you don't want to do either then please don't refer to these as "Emily" because it may not be the same and we don't want two different tomatoes that goes by the same name.

I choose the name after my daughter so her reputation is at stake! :-)

Greg

VERY sorry I missed it. Sounds like it was fantastic! Will definitely come next year. I'm sure to learn a lot from you hard-core tomato people.

And it's nice to hear about Dunkel of WV, who grows matos but won't eat them. My partner's the same way!

Diana Lynn