The Westbury Community Garden 6th Annual Tomato Tasting on June 1, 2019, was record-setting in many ways.
Most attendance
Most volunteers
Most fish bowl prize donations
Most funds raised
And most importantly
Most tomatoes (34 different varieties!)
The crowd favorites in three tomato categories were
Cherry tomatoes
1st place – tie – Apero and Matt’s Wild Cherry
2nd place – Sugary
3rd place – Sweet Million
A new variety this year, Apero, tied for top honors in the Cherry category. Yum!The tiny Matt’s Wild is surprisingly full of flavor!Sugary is as sweet as its name. It has about 9% more sugar content than other cherries.Can’t go wrong with Sweet Million. It’s always a great-tasting, prolific producer.
Saladettes
1st place – Verona
2nd place – Bloody Butcher
3rd place – Jaune Flamme
Similar to Juliet in size and shape, Verona has superior flavor.Bloody Butcher is a top producer and has great tomato flavor!Beautiful Jaune Flamme has citrusy, fruity overtones.
Slicers
1st place – JD’s Special C-Tex
2nd place – Rose De Berne
3rd place – Kellogg’s Breakfast
A new variety for us this year – JD’s Special was developed in Conroe, TX. It’s a Brandywine / black tomato cross yielding an earthy, complex flavor.This pink, thin-skinned Swiss tomato has a meaty texture and great acid/sweet balance.Kellogg’s Breakfast tomato produces extra large golden fruit with sweet, tangy flavor.
UPDATE: The Magical Sunflower Maze at Westbury Community Garden is closed for the season. Mother Nature brought an abrupt end to the project when Tropical Storm Nicholas flattened the sunflower field. September 18 and 25 Bouquet Days are also canceled. WCG is already planning improvements for the sunflower field and will bring the maze back…
The Founders’ Breakfast in the Garden fundraiser has two additional activities that are open to the public and not restricted to only donors who attend the breakfast. Under tents on the grounds visitors will find a Silent Auction with a terrific selection of gifts to on which to place bids. Additionally, there will be new…
A troop of Daisy (K – 1) and Junior Girl Scouts (grades 4-5) visited WCG on November 6 for an afternoon of outdoor learning that fulfilled Gardening badge requirements for both troops. The girls walked about the garden identifying plants by sight and smell, learned about composting, completed a weeding and mulching service project, and…
For February Work Day we expected to have a delivery of 12 cu. yards of soil and 225 bags of compost for the garden. Due to equipment problems, the Farm Dirt Company was only able to deliver 6 cu. yards and had to delay the bagged compost for a week. Luckily, we had over 20…
In 2014, Bert Gonzalez, a Westbury Community Garden founding member, asked if there was a possibility of converting a raised bed that was one concrete block high to a garden where one could sit or stand to tend the plants. Bert’s wife, Diana, had trouble squatting and bending; they might have to give up gardening….
On this perfect-weather Thanksgiving Day, while I rest up before the marauding hordes arrive, I am reflecting on how very grateful I am for all the wonderful things that have happened at the Garden this year and the dedicated people who made them all possible. Thanks to community leaders and their supporters, who worked tirelessly…
