You could have bought a 20 pound box of Bradley County’s tomatoes for $3,100 had you been at the All-Tomato Luncheon. That comes to, just a sec, a mere $155 a pound. Other than that box or lug as they used to be called, other delicious tomatoes from down yonder are quite a bit less expensive.
But that particular container was auctioned off for a good cause, along with a tomato cake (The recipe goes back to the first luncheon, and they say it’s delicious.) for $1,500. And it was all in good fun, except for when the tomatoes climbed up to and beyond the $3,000 mark and everyone stopped breathing for a few seconds until the auctioneer roared SOLD!
The luncheon has been around 68 years, one shy of the 69-year-history of the actual Pink Tomato Festival itself.
The gathering is a good reminder of one of the oldest public-private partnerships, with farmers out doing their thing and the University of Arkansas’s Cooperative Extension service helping with the scientific side of growing crops and then helping those same farmers market what they grew. Shane Gadberry, head of agricultural and natural resources for the service, said one side doesn’t work nearly as well without the other.
“Without the farmers, the UA land-grant system would have a mission without a purpose,” he told the gathering as keynote speaker. “Farmers are vital to our economy.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
If the tomatoes on your patio or in your garden are just now coming around, well, that’s what distinguishes the amateurs from the pros. Back a month and a half ago, Westin Clanton of Clanton Farms in Hermitage delivered the first box of tomatoes (Cherokee Purples) to the extension office, marking the official start of tomato season and giving Clanton Farms bragging rights for a year. He was honored at the luncheon, along with the Bradley County Farm Family of the Year — Richard and Karen McDougald.
The luncheon was put together by the Extension Homemakers’ Club, which has been handling matters for all 68 years – but whose history goes back a century when canning clubs started popping up here and there.
If this all sounds like a Norman Rockwell painting, well — it is… or maybe if Rockwell had made a film. Lots of camaraderie, hugs, ‘how you been’s and a general celebration of life at no more than 30 mph, just fast enough to get somewhere but slow enough to wave at your neighbors as you go by.
If you didn’t make it to the festival this year, put June 13 on your calendar for next year. You don’t want to miss the big 7-0.