It the 2011 Tomato Harvest Festival Since the beginning of recorded history (about four years ago), the fields around Weedovia have always been blessed with abundant wild tomato vines. And every spring and every fall, the local pleos relied on the abundant harvest gathered from these wild vines to enjoy throughout the year. They would go out twice a year to pick the tomatoes and bring them into the village. This traditional gathering of the tomatoes quickly grew into a community event, and from there into true full-blown harvest festival. And with the introduction of the spaghetti trees and pizza by the great Pepperoni, a real zest was added to the festivities.
Of course in modern times, with the addition of a carnival, rides, games, live band, and midnight movie on the town square, it has become more of a social event, attracting pleos from around the world. But all the pleos still go out and harvest the tomatoes and bring them to the town's communal tomato press for the traditional squashing of the tomatoes and the making of the tomato sauce.
This spring's festival has kinda snuck up on us, and due to a heavy workload, I'm a bit behind . . . SO, I apologize for not being able to give much advanced warning.
But I guess this is why everyone should have bought a calander!
Not sure what's going on? Well, then you may want to catch up by reading about the 2010 spring and fall festival topics and the Bob the Pleo comic strips. But as a quick summary, the town's park is turn into the festival grounds, with the carnival rides and games, a stage and dance floor, and lots of vendors and food booths! It starts on a Friday night with the carnival and music from a live band, and at midnight the pleos end the day with an outdoor movie. Saturday has everyone out in the fields gathering the tomatoes, with the judging in the evening, and back to the carnival. Sunday is the big tomato squashing where the sauce is made using the traditional foot-stomping method like the great Italian wines.
And at the conclusion of the festival, awards are always handed out to the pleo who gathers the most tomatoes, finds the largest tomato, has the best looking tomatoes, makes the best tasting spaghetti sauce, and for the best use of tomatoes as an article of clothing (i.e., costume). The last few years winners can be seen by visiting the Bob the Pleo comics. We had some great fun, and some wonderful costumes!
For those interested in participating in the contests, please refer to the
contest rules topic on this board. For some ideas and/or to get a better understanding, you can check out the
2010 Spring festival topic or the
2009 Fall festival topic (also on this board). You can also read up on the Bob the Pleo comic strip!
I'm out of t-shirt right now, so I'll be offering a choice of either a calendar or a necklace.
This spring's festival runs
Friday March 4th to Sunday March 6th, 2011 (that's not this weekend, but the next one!
). And if you keep up with the comic strip, it looks like Sally is back in charge this time!
Post your entries here!
Author
Topic: 2011 Tomato Harvest Festival (Read 67572 times)