Matthews Farmers Market

Annual Tomato Tasting Day

 

 

  

 

 

  
Last Saturday, July 28th at 8:30 am Chef Adam Reed of Sante gave a cooking demonstration at the Matthews Farmers Market to enhance the already  fabulous Annual Tomato Tasting Day.  I will be completely honest by saying that I did not partake of the no doubt wonderful cuisine being served up by Matthews favorite Chef, and will even admit that I could not tell you exactly what he was cooking for the festival goers.  How pray tell can a food critic attend such an event and not sample all the wares you may ask? Well the true answer is that I arrived late, spent way too much time eating copious amounts of tomatoes, and when I did arrive near the end of Adam's demonstration I was overcome by a rare surge of generosity.  You see there were several festival goers milling about that had never sampled any of the fine cuisine from Sante's esteemed chef.  Since I frequent Sante myself, and there were only a few samples left, I decided to be selfless and pass my spot in line to someone else.

Sante helped raise money for the farmers market through the sale of discount diner cards as a way of showing thanks and appreciation for the very valuable resource to the local chefs and general public that the market provides. Big Kudos to Adam and Veronica Reed for their support of a wonderful community resource.

Tomatoes...a veritable cornucopia of delicious ready to eat tomatoes arrayed upon sampling tables awaited the salivating crowds of market shoppers.   There was an official ballot done by representatives of the Farmers Market to determine the winner of the tomato tasting.  The ballots were tallied and the results were shouted out to announce the winners in the various categories, but frankly I was still elbows deep in tomato samples and did not record the winners.  No worries, I had already chosen my favorite anyway.  My pick was the Mechlenburg tomato, raised by Fisher Farms.  Fisher farms describes their tomato as an heirloom selected and developed by Dane Fisher of fisher Farms of Richfield.  A dark, almost chocolate colored tomato of medium size with dark purple interior, rich strong flavor, a thin skin and great aroma.  Wow....all that about a tomato.  I describe it as simply delicious.  Add a touch of salt and it is divine.  Thin sliced upon rye bread with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and mayonnaise it becomes the perfect tomato sandwich.

The farmers market has more to offer than just tomatoes.  Fresh produce of every description abounds in Matthews, but if you want the best stuff I suggest getting there early.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Join the critic this Friday, 4-7pm at

Total Wine and More of Matthews

 

Michael Godard Gallery,    Myrtle_Beach SC

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