SETTFest 2009 Best Year Ever

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!

View photos of the 2009 SETTFest!

SETTFest 2010 Sizzling Flavors

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.

View photos of the 2010 SETTFest!

SETTFest 2011 a Huge Success

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.

View photos of the 2011 SETTFest!

South East Texas Tomato Festival 6th annual date announced!

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

[ Information on this event and Photos of Past Events >> ]

Website Relaunch

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.