You say tomato festival

I'll say it was a fun time down in shockoe bottom. Saturday we decided to venture into the city to procure some fresh tomatoes for a tomato-mozzarella salad I have been jonesing to make. The timing for the tomato festival just happened to match my desire to make a tomato based salad, life is funny like that.

The farmers market surprises me every time I visit it. If you were to see it any other day of the week (sans Saturday or Sunday morning) you might think it an abandoned lot or spill over parking for a sketchy night club. Not on a weekend morning though, it is alive with families, elderly couples and local culinary artist picking up ingredients for the day. Thats just a regular Saturday, for the tomato festival there was a live band, fresh eats and even booths for different political campaigns.

Craftsman set up shop to sell their handmade wares and even perform their craft in front of potential customers. There was a fellow who was busy whittling away at an impressive figure eight made of wood that reminded me of pencil carving, but on a larger scale. There was even a kiddie pool filled with corn and sand box toys. I know, I would like to play with corn, but there were toddlers in the pool who looked lost. Do kids like to play with corn in the absence of sand? Maybe they were getting a mixed message, don't play with your food unless its in a kiddie pool? If they were confused or frustrated the bottom could sooth their little souls with the staple of any good festival, face painting.

So how about those tomatoes? They were beautiful, all shapes and sizes and plenty of free samples. In the search of the perfect tomato we came across what looked to be the tomatoes of the god(s). Dogwood greenhouse (or nursery, the name escapes me at the moment) tomatoes are the jam. They are perfectly round, an amazing fire engine red and chemical/pesticide free. Oh and they taste good too. The guy who was selling them was also the one that grows them and we chit chatted with him while picking out ten of his finest. Turns out he is the supplier for Good Foods Grocery, which is right by our house. It was his first time selling at the farmers market and he was planning to come back for two more weeks to see how it went. Even if he doesn't come back we will be eating his fine fruit for the foreseeable future thanks to our local grocer.

After we left the festival we went west to Carytown in search of a new purse for Crystal. Finding none that suited her fancy we picked up loads of bread from Montana Gold and went home to take Macy out. My parents called in route and offered up a dinner invite in celebration of my cousin Matt being in town for the night. Not wanting to pass on a free dinner and fun with the family we put our salad on hold for the evening.

The menu yesterday did include my tomato-mozzarella salad however and I can happily report that it was a hit. Tonight I will be serving up tomato and mozzarella sandwiches on toasted bread with a side of the salad left over from Sunday.