Sacramento Tomatofest

Ah… Sacramento aka SacraTomato-​where in my mind, a sure sign of summer is tomatoes strewn on the freeway turning it into literal road ketchup. So just imagine my excitement when I saw the write up in The Bee about the Tomato Festival at Town & Country Village. It seemed like a perfect way to end my visit to my old hometown.
I envisioned stands of bright red tomatoes a la farmer’s market, hearty tomato plants for sale, tomato themed knick-​knacks, and a sizable crowd partaking of all things tomato. Not so much.
~The Run Down~
~ It was free!
~ A decent cover band was playing which livened up the scene
considerably.
~ An artist or 2 was painting and one of them was even creating art
with a tomato theme!
~ The food tasting booth had some fabulous bruschetta & gazpacho
bites (FREE!) But the line moved achingly SLOW.
~ Noteworthy Booths: Farm Fresh to You, Unilocal with freebies, wine
tasting (But vino @11AM is too early even for me) & a gardening booth
with plenty of free magazines and packets veggie seeds. Too few
booths to dub this a «Festival» though.
~ The sidewalk sales felt like a garage sale/​Christmas in
July. Exceptions: The Paper Garden & Capitol Confections which both
had decent items & plenty of them.
~ The entire hour or so I was there, nothing what-​so-​ever happened in
the cooking demo booth. Huge disappointment.
It looks like Town & Country Village is struggling with many empty store fronts so an event like this is a great idea to generate some foot traffic & positive publicity. Too bad this felt so small town. Sacra-​Tomato can do better. I hope they do a more pumped up version of The Tomato Festival next year. I see potential for something really cool.

This was one instance where the early bird DOESN’T catch the worm. The event started at 9am. I arrived shortly after. When I got there, everything was not set up and not all of the vendors were even there. I walked around the parking lot and was able to see all of the festival within 15 minutes.
People can enter their tomatoes in one of three categories: Largest, Smallest, and Ugliest. There’s a $ 500 prize for a winner in each category. I would say that is a big draw for those who grow tomatoes.
A little information online on when the events were supposed to start would’ve been great.
Local restaurant chefs compete in three categories: Salsa, Bruschetta, and Tomato Soup (hot or cold). Ten22 and Evan’s Kitchen were two restaurants I spotted who were competing. The Chef’s Challenge runs from 11am-​1230pm. Once again, I was too early for my own good. I wasn’t able to taste their yummy samples.
On the Sacramento TomatoFest flyer, it stated that there was going to be wine tasting. The ladies who were at this booth said they weren’t serving wine until 11am. No wine for me. I did sample 3 types of cheeses they had.
I remember reading a Bee article about a tomato truffle and gelato. It was one of the main reasons why I wanted to come to this event. They were nowhere to be found. I asked someone who was working the event but she had no idea what I was talking about. I think I was supposed to visit the actual store (Capital Confections) within the plaza.
I went to a food booth to order some fried green tomatoes because that was the only food available. I was the first and only person in line. I paid $ 4. Unfortunately, the power cord to the griddle wasn’t working. I got a refund and walked away. Fail.
I was able to sample a cup of tomato bisque made by Matteo’s before I left. I thought it was supposed to be salsa at first and was looking for the chips. The bisque was refreshing.
Total number of tomato items eaten: 1
The main redeeming factor of this event was the Unilocal booth. I scored some free swag– a reusable tote bag, sunglasses, and a nail file. Thanks Unilocal