Tip: Get there as early as you can; there will be lots of people. There is a parking lot by the building, and cars will also end up parking all along the long driveway. If you go after work, maybe about 5:30 pm, it is worth driving all the way up to look for open spots closer to the building.
What you can enjoy!:
- Tasting: There will be 180 tomatoes; 80 varieties of peppers, including the ghost pepper (hottest pepper in the world three years ago), Trinidad scorpian (hottest pepper in the world two years ago), and Carolina reaper (hottest pepper in the world last year); and several species of tomatillos—all grown at Bradford Research Center Farm. If you are curious, see the Results from previous years’ Tomato Festival tastings.
- More Tasting: In the main building: 20 chefs will bring their tastiest dishes for everyone to try, including salsa, relish, and tomato sauces from local restaurants. This is a cook-off contest for area chefs who prepare the tomato-based dishes. Taste, then vote for the best entry and the winning recipe will be featured in an upcoming article in the Columbia Daily Tribune. Bonus! Harold’s Doughnuts will have the Sweet Tomato Doughnut Hole, dusted with lemon-scented sugar to try!
- Kids Corner: The Bradford Corn Maze this year includes the shapes of a Monarch Butterfly and a Bumble Bee, which are both important to Bradford, CAFNR, and MU. Projects are underway to study and increase their numbers. For the kids, hay rides will be given to the corn maze and they can roam until they find their way out. How was it cut out? It was drawn on paper, transferred to a GPS map of the corn field, then mowed.
- New! All kids will be invited to sample and rate 8 flavors of milk from Shatto Dairy: Chocolate, Strawberry, Banana, Cookies and Cream, Cotton Candy, Coffee, Root Beer, and, of course, white.
- For adults (age 21+): Wine Tasting, courtesy of the Missouri Wine Board.
- For Gardeners or anyone interested:
- Tomato and pepper plots will be open for viewing.
- Seminars:
- 4 p.m. Getting the Most From Your Garden — Steven Sapp, Strawberry Hill Farms
- 5 p.m. Commonly Diagnosed Diseases of Tomatoes and Peppers: Prevention and Management — Patti Hosack, MU Plant Diagnostic Lab
- 6 p.m. Wet Weather Woes — David Trinklein, MU Plant Sciences Division
The event is held at the MU Bradford Research Center, 4968 Rangeline Rd, Columbia MO 65201-8973 (573-884-7945) [http://bradford.cafnr.org/].
For most people, the simplest way to get there is to
- take the AC exit from Highway 63
- go east on E New Haven Road
- follow E New Haven Road about 5 miles, until it ends at S Rangeline Road
- turn right on S Rangeline Rd and go about 1.3 miles to the farm entrance on the right
- Parking: It is free, but gets crowded. There is a parking lot around the main building; if that is full, people find parking nearby on the grass or along the long driveway to the building.
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Wow! It’s amazing how the Tomato Festival still gets better every year! This year, helpers from FFA (Future Farmers of America) assisted visitors with parking, including more parking on the grass near the festivities. There was a steady but even crowd this year. It was easy to move around. The hot peppers had a separate section to protect the unsuspecting :)___ The Shatto Dairy milk sampling was both fun and disappointing: The milk was good, but some of the flavors had artificial color and/or flavor. The maze was awesome—challenging, our group worked together to get through, but not so difficult you would get lost. They gave us maps before going in and the pattern included a bee, butterfly, and the letters for MU and CAFNR! The wine sampling had four wines and two grape juices from Les Bourgeois, St. James, and Stone Hill wineries. I love it when they have juices for the kids. For the food competition, everyone got four tickets for voting when they signed in (as well as free raffle tickets), and it was soooo difficult to decide how to vote. Participants included Harold’s Donuts, Sparky’s Ice Cream, Wolf’s Head Tavern (chef Trey of Trey’s Bistro, and they will be the food vendor at the upcoming South Farm Showcase), Sophia’s, Flat Branch Brewery, Chili’s, Lucky’s Market, Jack’s Gourmet, several local Mexican restaurants, Cherry Street Wine Cellar and Bistro, Columbia Area Career Center students, and MU Chefs. Kids were having lots of fun in the Kid’s tent, too! I look forward to hearing other people’s experience!
Here are the Bradford Facebook photos:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1028387897185968.1073741887.1728126227435
And Columbia Daily Tribune article:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/annual-tomato-festival-attracts-gardeners-families/article_0a82eca5-54e5-54bf-b081-4ec1ae8edc5c.html
And Columbia Missourian article on the hottest peppers:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/world-s-hottest-pepper-spices-up-tomato-festival/article_920f6994-52ae-11e5-8dc3-dbf2e1e45062.html