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FOOD ARTS    December 2003

Tomato or tomahto, it’s heirloom   Santa Rosa , California- With 185 heirloom beauties from its culinary garden anchoring the Tomato Tasting Tent, Kendall-Jackson hosted its seventh annual Heirloom Tomato Festival here in September. More than 1,900 visitors sampled juicy varietals from the winerv's gardens, sipped K-J reserve wines, and noshed on tomato inspired delights from BLTs and bruscehetta to chocolate dipped dried tasties dangled by premier Bay Area chefs and purveyors.

An organic enthusiast, K-J founder Jess Jackson planted the 2.5 acre garden to preserve heirloom varietals. The kaleidoscopic tomato bounty inspired the West Coast's first large-scale tomato festival in 1996.

This year, an arresting presence was the Guiness Book of World Records largest BLT—a 100-foot ode to the all-American favorite. Wearing a tomato headress, Michele Anna Jordan , author of The BLT Cookbook led the grand BLT parade, sandwich assembly, and sale, which benefits charity.

   On a smaller scale, visitors scarfed down cherry tomato tarts with whipped crème fraîche from Brannan's Grill in Calistoga and a delectable grapevine smoker tomato bread pudding with basil crème anglaise from John Ash & Co. in Santa Rosa . Skewered steaks with smoked tomato jam and corn salad were a hot item from Jason Miller of Larkspur's Lark Creek Inn.

On a cooler note, Carrie Brown of Jimtown Store in Alexander Valley scooped up tarragon infused tomato syrup snow cones, while Bart Hosmer of Parcel 104 restaurant in Santa Clara offered a choice of three heirloom tomato syrups.

And what tomato festival would be worth its salt without heir­loom tomato ketchup? Among those sampled were chipotle and teriyaki versions.

 Snow cones in hand, festivalgoers ambled around the culinary garden, toured the tomato art exhibit, and learned about pairing wine with vegetables. (Let color be your guide: yellow and green tomatoes, yellow beets, and grilled fennel go well with Sauvignon Blanc , while Pinot Noir is better with deep ret tomatoes, red cab­bage, red beets, and eggplant.)

 As farmers' market fresh foods rocket to record popularity tomato enthusiasm grows not only in California (tomato lovers flock to Carmel's TomatoFest and Yuba City’s International Tomato Festival) but nationwide. The Eastern Native Seed Conservancy festival started in the Berkshires in Massachusetts in 1996 as a means of promoting heirloom tomatoes to chefs, farmers, and the public, and similar festivals are proliferating in such diverse spots as Crystal Springs , Mississippi ; Lauderdale County , Tennessee , and New Orleans ' French Quarter.

                                — Deborah Grossman

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