Apley Tomato Festival, 24-25 Sept

Beef Master tomatoes

San Marzano tomatoes

Rosella tomatoes

Brandywine tomatoes

Orkado tomatoes

Heritage tomatoes

Apley Tomato Festival will be held 24-25 Sept, as part of Apley Farm Shop’s 2 day Harvest & Craft Fair weekend. It seems ages away but now’s the time to get gardening ! Anyone can enter. There will be an entry form online very soon.

Apley Walled Garden’s Head Gardener Phil Allen is growing the young tomato plants in his polytunnels & taking them to local schools. His Facebook page will be full of advice & tips for teachers & pupils, on how to grow tomatoes successfully. Phil will keep in regular contact to ensure their tomatoes are growing well. Once they’ve got a few tomatoes appearing, the schools are then invited to enter the competition. I’ll blog the form asap with details of the classes – the biggest tomato, the reddest tomato, the most unusual shaped tomato … We’re lining up some great prizes of course.

Teachers, pupils & parents turn up on the day (Sat 24 Sept) bringing their plants & or the tomatoes & their competition entry form (Phil will be onsite to receive them). They must arrive by 12noon for judging at 1pm & prizes at 2pm.  Phil will display the tomato plants & baskets of tomatoes in the courtyard labelled with the school’s name. Plants & tomatoes must be removed by 4pm on the day or they will get cooked in our Creamery Cafe !

Phil will be in the courtyard on the day with his display of numerous varieties (listed below), giving 15 mins talks about tomatoes on the hour from 11-4pm. He has been calling round the seed companies to gather as many varieties as he can – he’s hoping to top 100. Here is the first 45 from his long list – some with wierd & wonderful names:

1. Akron f1
2. Apricot Dream
3. Beefmaster
4. Cherrola
5. Delicacay
6. Orkado
7. Shirley
8. Sparta
9. Sungold
10. Super Sweet
11. Sweet Million
12. Alisa Craig
13. Alicante
14. Big Daddy
15. Black Opal
16. Black Russian
17. Craigella
18. Gardeners Delight
19. Golden Sunrise
20. Money Maker
21. Rosella
22. San Marzano
23. St Pierre
24. Tigerella
25. Yellow Pear
26. Lizzano
27. Megabyte
28. Sweet n Neat Scarlet
29. Smader
30. Totem
31. Tumbler
32. Amateur
33. Garten Perle
34. Peardrop
35. Red Alert
36. Roma
37. Tiny Tim
38. Tumbling Tom Red
39. Tumbling Tom Yellow
40. Marmande
41. Outdoor Girl
42. Estamino
43. Latah
44. Green Zebra
45. Costoluto Fiorentino