The Tomato Tasting has been canceled. I just received this email from the Morris County extension center:

"Unfortunately, the Great Tomato Tasting scheduled for next week has been canceled due to the extreme weather - rain, wind and hail - this past Friday which destroyed the tomato and pepper crop at the Snyder Farm."

Thanks for the post, Loretta; I know a lot of people will be disappointed to miss the tomato tasting.

I've been working on some ethnic vegetable trials out at Snyder farm and we were out there today to survey the damage and see what was left to harvest. What a pitiful sight to behold! I've never seen anything like it. Fruits bruised and peppered with holes, leaves shredded, stems torn apart; some of the corn was blown over, as were a few trees and a small windmill. That must have been some awesome storm.

I garden as a hobby, for the satisfaction and beauty and fresh produce for our table ... standing in that field, I could only imagine the feelings of someone whose crops are their livelihood.

FYI, though the peppers in our first plot looked quite destroyed, the gourds may be ok and the Malabar Spinach looks like it might make a comeback. In our second plot, across the street, there was a nice harvest of several kinds of peppers and eggplants, with more yet to ripen. Though not involved in the tomato project, I took a quick look at some of the plots and didn't see a single tomato that looked salvageable.

So, here's to next year ...

Diane

They are suppose to do some clean up today but I have the kids home. It must have been some storm. We had heavy rain but nothing so devastating.