It’s official! The 6th annual SETTFest will take place on June 2nd.
South East Texas Tomato Festival
Saturday June 2, 2012
12:30pm ~ 3pm (Setup 11:30am)
~ 6th Annual Tomato Tasting~
Palmetto State Park (Group Picnic Pavilion / Refrectory) in Gonzales, TX
Posted on 20 November '11 by Suze, under News & Events. No Comments.
A new venue for our 5th annual SETTFest brought with it a much larger crowd and more tomatoes for everyone to try out! We lost count at 70 people in attendance, and also saw a welcome increase in the number of tomatoes brought by different people, which gave us the unique opportunity to compare the same varieties grown in different gardens.
Our mission is to introduce heirloom tomatoes to Central and South Texas gardeners and farmers alike, dispel the myths that only ‘heat setter’ varieties can be grown here, and offer advice and seeds wherever we can. So it was great to see folks asking lots of questions (including a few stumpers!), gathering seeds, and talking shop.
Posted on 20 November '11 by Suze, under News & Events. No Comments.
The 4th annual South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest) was our third visit to picturesque Washington on the Brazos state park. Despite the unrelenting heat, it’s still a great venue to hold this event. This year, the date (June 19th, 2010) coincided very nearly with Father’s Day. We’re very thankful to any families that had to do without tomato-loving dads for a few hours.
As always, we caught up with old friends, and saw folks who traveled from far and wide. We had visitors from San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Louisiana, El Paso, TX (a 680 mile drive), and the furthest travelers were from California and Oregon!
We are thrilled that more and more folks are bringing tomatoes and other items as well. This year, we saw a marked increase in the number of growers bringing tomatoes. An event like this works best when there are several providers of tomatoes. There was also a nice spread of cheeses, breads, and an ever-evolving pasta salad put together from fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the event.
Posted on 21 June '10 by Morgan, under News & Events. No Comments.
When I first heard of making spaghetti sauce in less than 30 minutes, I was skeptical. The classic spaghetti sauces, such as Pasta Bolognese that my mother used to make took hours. But with the availability of intensely-flavored heirloom tomatoes from my garden, it was time to take inspiration from America’s Test Kitchen and see what was possible in 30 minutes. The result is, in my opinion, fresh, zesty, and flavorful and a perfect accompaniment to most any type of pasta.
Posted on 23 June '09 by Morgan, under Cooking & Harvest Preservation. No Comments.
I’ve been making a lot of oven roasted sauce lately. It’s an easy way to turn your excess tomato harvest into a tasty, rich sauce to enjoy throughout the year. I originally got the idea from critterologist on Dave’s Garden, who wrote an informative and detailed article about it there. She says it is “pure ambrosia”, and I agree! I’ll never go back to slaving over a hot stove top to cook down tomatoes into sauce again. This method frees up my time to get some other things done while the sauce is roasting, and tastes much better.
Any tomatoes you have on hand can be used. Meaty paste types are not necessary. Got a buildup of cherry tomatoes? Throw ‘em in too.
Posted on 22 June '09 by Suze, under Cooking & Harvest Preservation. 5 Comments.
The 3rd annual South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest) returned to the historic Washington on the Brazos state park on June 13th, 2009. We had our best turnout yet, with familiar faces, new folks, and unexpected guests. We had a great time, had everything set up early, so we could just enjoy visiting with folks.
Our mission at SETTFest is to introduce heirloom tomatoes to Central and South Texas gardeners and farmers alike, dispel the myths that only ‘heat setter’ varieties can be grown here, and offer advice and seeds wherever we can. So it was great to see folks asking lots of questions (including a few stumpers!), gathering seeds, and talking shop.
We are thrilled that more and more folks are bringing tomatoes and other items as well. There was a nice spread of breads, cheeses, pasta salads, etc. This was a tough year for tomatoes in our area due to the heatwave and torrential downpours in early May. But still most folks managed to get something and we enjoyed tasting varieties that others brought. Indeed one of the best varieties at the event was Atkinson.
Thanks all for making this a great event!
Posted on 14 June '09 by Morgan, under News & Events. 2 Comments.
We are proud to announce the relaunch of the South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest.com) website. We will be doing our best to provide helpful and accurate information about the challenges and solutions to growing tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables in S.E. Texas. We are adding information all the time such as variety recommendations, garden bed preparation, container growing advice, and more. We will be keeping more up-to-date information on our Tomato Festival as well.
If you have any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to leave your comments below or use the Contact Us form. If you’ve got photos of your garden or your tomatoes you’d like to send us for inclusion in the website, please send us an e-mail and we’ll arrange that as well.
Posted on 28 January '09 by Morgan, under News & Events. No Comments.
