I have quite a few pennies. Should I bring them?

Christine

I have quite a few pennies. Should I bring them?

Christine

I have quite a few pennies. Should I bring them?

Christine

Anne,

Ceclia had mentioned starting later, however, it seems that some come early and some come late. I would be happy to set up early if folks wanted that. By early I mean 10AM. What say you Cecila?

Greg

What's MAGTAG? Is it open to everyone?

I looked around on this site but couldn't find any other mention of it. If there is a swap going on, I'd love to participate--I have a bunch of stuff to share.

Thanks.

Diana

MAGTAG is the tomato-tasting, seed-swapping, homebrew drinking festival, August 16 just south of Baltimore, and you are definitely invited.

The Fall plant swap should be in September sometime.

Diana,

Annbert's description is right, it would be great to have you. We will be doing it this year on August 16th at a pavilion in Baltimore. Generally it starts in the morning between 9AM and 10:30AM and goes until 3:30PM or when folks decide to split.

People bring samples of their tomomatoes and we set them on a paper plate and slice them and write the variety names on the plate. Folks go around tasting them during the event and rate them. Last year we had 80 distinct varieties.

Also folks bring tomato based dishes and desserts. We have had some wonderous ones. Also, there is a biggest tomato contest that BlueKat often wins :-)

Last year my daughters made ribbon awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in "Best tasting Tomato". If you had a kid who would like to help let us know. I hate to take all the fun for my kids. I was hoping to add a 4th and 5th award this year.

Also, me and another gentleman like to make an offical homebrew for the event. I just bottled mine last night :-)

It takes place at the Southwest Area Park: here are some of Cecilia's directions:

FROM WASHINGTON, DC AND POINTS SOUTH:

Directions to Southwest Area Park, 3000 Georgia Avenue, Halethorpe, MD 21227

Via BW Parkway:
Take 295 N
Merge onto I-695 E / BALTIMORE BELTWAY OUTER LOOP toward GLEN BURNIE. 1.0 miles
Merge onto MD-170 N / N CAMP MEADE RD via EXIT 6A toward N LINTHICUM. 0.7 miles
Turn LEFT onto MD-648 / BALTIMORE ANNAPOLIS BLVD. Continue to follow MD-648. 1.5 miles
Turn RIGHT onto GEORGIA AVE. 0.4 miles
Park is at end of road behind Light Rail station - cross train tracks to enter park.
Turn LEFT at park entrance. Pavilions & parking lots will be on your right.

Via I-95 North:
Take I-95 N toward BALTIMORE / NEW YORK.
Take the CATON AVE exit- EXIT 50. 0.1 miles
Take the CATON AVE SOUTH exit- EXIT 50A- toward WASHINGTON BLVD. 0.3 miles
Merge onto S CATON AVE / US-1 ALT S. 0.2 miles
Turn SLIGHT LEFT onto W PATAPSCO AVE. 1.5 miles
Turn RIGHT onto ANNAPOLIS RD / MD-648. 0.8 miles
Turn LEFT onto GEORGIA AVE. 0.4 miles
Park is at end of road behind Light Rail station - cross train tracks to enter park.
Turn LEFT at park entrance. Pavilions & parking lots will be on your right.

FROM FREDERICK AND POINTS WEST

Directions to Southwest Area Park, 3000 Georgia Avenue, Halethorpe, MD 21227:

Take I-70 East
Merge onto I-695 S / BALTIMORE BELTWAY OUTER LOOP via EXIT 91A toward I-95 S / GLEN BURNIE. 5.4 miles
Merge onto I-95 N via EXIT 11A / 11B toward BALTIMORE. 1.5 miles
Take the CATON AVE exit- EXIT 50. 0.1 miles
Take the CATON AVE SOUTH exit- EXIT 50A- toward WASHINGTON BLVD. 0.3 miles
Merge onto S CATON AVE / US-1 ALT S. 0.2 miles
Turn SLIGHT LEFT onto W PATAPSCO AVE. 1.5 miles
Turn RIGHT onto ANNAPOLIS RD / MD-648. 0.8 miles
Turn LEFT onto GEORGIA AVE.
Park is at end of road behind Light Rail station - cross train tracks to enter park.
Turn LEFT at park entrance. Pavilions & parking lots will be on your right.

FROM ANNAPOLIS/POINTS EAST

Directions to Southwest Area Park, 3000 Georgia Avenue, Halethorpe, MD 21227:

US-301 S / US-50 W via the ramp on the LEFT toward I-97 / WASHINGTON / BALTIMORE.
Merge onto I-97 N via EXIT 21 toward BALTIMORE. 18.3 miles
Take the exit on the LEFT toward I-895 / HARBOR TUNNEL. 0.1 miles
Take the exit. 0.2 miles
Merge onto I-695 W / BALTIMORE BELTWAY INNER LOOP toward MD-648 / FERNDALE. 1.2 miles
Merge onto MD-648 N (Annapolis Road) via EXIT 5. 2.5 miles
Turn RIGHT onto GEORGIA AVE. 0.4 miles
Park is at end of road behind Light Rail station - cross train tracks to enter park.
Turn LEFT at park entrance. Pavilions & parking lots will be on your right.

Hope to see you there
Greg

Wow thats only a few blocks from work. I work right on Caton Ave.

I've been thinking that in addition to ribbons there should be prizes for:
person/family who comes the farthest
biggest tomato
Person/family who brings the largest number of varieties.

I'm willing to supply some fun ones.

Good idea?

Annebert,

I taked it over with Dogbert and Catbert and they liked the idea but Dogbert didn't see how he could make any money off it and Catbert said it wasn't evil enough :-)

I really like the "Family that drove the furthest". That's a good one. All good ideas though. Do bring'm and let us know to avoid duplication.

Greg

Maybe we should award the "Family that drove the furthest" with a cash prize to offset gas prices! (BTW, there are some cheap gas stations in SW Baltimore/Baltimore County/Anne Arundel County near the park.)

I posted this on T0mat0ville.c0m:

"... it's still time to get serious about preparing for the fest. I will search through my big bag of leftover supplies from last year (plasticware, foil, etc.) and see what we're low on.

And there's that nagging question of how to improve the judging of the best tasting tomato. Greg F. had a penny jar method that sounded interesting. Perhaps he can explain it for us in a post."

To which Greg replied:

"Cecilia and all,

Here's my take on the penny method of tomato taste Judging. The problem with last year was counting up the votes. It takes time and can be frustrating. The answer: Judge by weight instead of counting.

1. Place a jar of pennies one of the tables and tell folks to take a hand full.
2. Tomatoes that are to be judged are partially cut and leaft on a paper plate with the variety name written on the plate. This is how we did it last year. Add to this a cup with the name of the tomato variety written on the cup a place it next to its respective tomato plate.
3. As folks taste the tomatoes they can give a tomato 0, 1, 2 or 3 pennies. If the tomato is good give it 1 penny. If a tomato is great give it 2 pennies. If the tomato is in your top 3 give it 3 pennies.
4. When it comes time to judge we will do a visual inspection of the cups to see which ones seem to have collected a bunch and take those for judging while ignoring the obvious losers.
5. Finally we will weigh the cups to see which one is the heaviest, second heaviest ect. The heaviest wins first prize! There will be awards for the top 5

This will make Cecilia's MAGTAG experience much less stressful ;-)

Not to mention, we will have awards, possibly produced by Annbert for biggest tomato and family who traveled the farest and other things."

So I added:

"Thanks, Greg! I like your solution.

Two thoughts, though -

1. The earlier you get to the park, the longer your tomatoes will be available for judging (unless we start the tasting at a specific time).

2. New pennies weigh less than old pennies! I think the feds went with the zinc combo in the 80s, though, so it's unlikely that we'll get any old ones. (Just giving you a hard time.)"

I just picked my very first tomatoes yesterday - three Sungolds! Let the harvest begin!

Does anybody know a way to post a PDF file to these forums? I have a flyer for the fest that I could make available to folks who are interested.

I'm down in NoVA, so am not sure about coming up to Baltimore.

Would it be possible for a newbie container gardener to beg for a few tomato seeds? Even ones from last year's old packets?

Or maybe I will at least decide what kinds I might like. I really don't know a lot about tomatoes - grocery store ones always seemed watery and bland, so I don't really like them. I'm trying a roma as my first tomato, but it is getting lots of BER. I bought a little kit for Tiny Tims, so those are just starting to flower. They are now well over 2 feet, but I thought they were only supposed to be 18".

When and where is the fall swap?

If anyone has advice on growing eggplants here I'd like to hear about it.

Alice, we have people from NY and NJ who come! It would be a great way for you to learn about which tomatoes you like - we had 80- some varieties last year.

You don't have to beg for seeds. We always have lots and everyone tries to press on you the seeds of their favorite. BTW if seeds are stored properly (cool and dry) they are good for many years.

We haven't decided on the fall swap yet. Time for a new thread...

Oh dear. All I have is Sungolds, and two Thessalonikis just today... And here I was especially hoping to distribute seeds from a white tomato and a red "pepper" tomato that my 80+-old neighbor gave me, from somebody who used to have a farm where there are now acres of houses and a shopping center.

May I bring non-tomato-growing ringers?

I only have 8 plants of 3 different varieties. I have only gotten 2 ripe tomatoes off these plants. I was hoping to bring some Furry Yellow Hog tomatoes, but they look like they are nowhere near ripe. Hopefully the next 2 weeks lead to some ripening.