Tasting the Tomatoes

Summer isn't over in Hoboken until residents have had their fill of tomatoes. In its ninth season, the Annual Heirloom Tomato-tasting Festival, sponsored by the Hoboken Historical Museum, featured dozens of varieties from New Jersey's Catalpa Ridge Farm in the breezeway at 1301 Hudson St. on Sunday afternoon.

"There ain't nothing like a good tomato," said Eric Volpe, a member of the local Community Supported Agriculture organization who volunteered to slice tomatoes for the tasting. The Hoboken CSA, whose members invest in and procure their produce from Catalpa Ridge Farm, a small, organic farm in Sussex County, helped put the event together by linking their preferred grower with the town's museum.

The real connection between the farm and the museum, though, is the history, said Holly Metz, a museum employee who founded the Hoboken CSA more than a decade ago. "All these varieties are over 50 years old," she said, pointing to a long table of tomato samples. "They are handed down from gardener to gardener."

Heirloom tomatoes come in various shapes, sizes, and colors, but what they all have in common is that they've been sown from seeds passed down from generation to generation.

"Heirloom tomatoes are the closest thing to a way to taste, perhaps, the foods that your grandparents and great-grandparents sampled," said Bob Foster, the museum's executive director. "People are keeping these seeds alive. If they didn't, these strains would sort of disappear and we'd just have maybe four or five varieties of tomato, when really, there are hundreds of them."

The day's favorite tomatoes, according to volunteers at the tasting tables, were the Speckled Roman, a light and dark red, pepper-shaped variety, and the large, round, red Celebrity.

"You can become a celebrity for eating it," said Ian Maxen, adding that he really wasn't sure where all the strange names given to heirloom tomatoes come from. Other heirlooms at the festival were the Pink Brandywine, the Ramapo, and the Mortgage Lifter, said to have helped a farmer raise enough money to pay off his loan in the 1930s.

"We tried all of them," said Mike Berlingo, who lives near the museum and was drawn to the event after smelling basil from half a block away. "It's a nice little surprise coming over here today."

Other patrons came as far as Queens to get a sample. "We're tomato-obsessed," said Rose Lundy, shopping with her daughter, Teresa, who found the event listed online while recently researching heirloom tomatoes.

In addition to tomatoes, growers Richard and Susan Sisti brought other farm-fresh veggies like corn, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, and onions, as well as gourmet dips and jams.

Foster said the event is always a little sad because it marks the end of summer, but the farmers and museum associates plan to team up again on October 17 for the Annual Heirloom Garlic-tasting Festival. "We have always found food events are very popular," he said, "so if we can tie history and food, why not?" Foster added that he and his team like to think Carlo's Bakery, the site for TLC's hit TV show "Cake Boss," is not the only hot spot in town.