Some heirlooms aren’t intended for museum collections. They’re meant to be savored by the palate.
Heirloom tomatoes, grown from old-fashioned varieties that have been passed down from one generation to the next because of their superior taste, are celebrated every year with a free tasting event in the breezeway next to the Hoboken Historical Museum, 1301 Hudson St.
New varieties will include Super Snow Berry and Lemon Boy.
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Despite the blight afflicting much of the area’s home gardens and small farms, Wantage, N.J.-based farmers Rich and Sue Sisti will have plenty of tomatoes for tasting from their Catalpa Ridge Farm and some of their neighboring New Jersey farmers.
Favorites over the years have included the tart “Aunt Ruby’s German Green,” the supremely flavorful “Brandywine Pink,” and the ever-popular “Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter.”
New varieties are grown every year, so if you were at the tasting in years past, you’ll find new tomatoes for sampling this year (in colors ranging from white to yellow to striped to green to purple and even a few red ones). Catalpa Ridge Farm will also have packaged dips, pestos and salsas made from farm ingredients, and will be offering a few new tomato varieties, including Super Snow Berry, Small Fry and Lemon Boy.
They’ll also bring a selection of farm-fresh produce including garlic, herbs, peppers, onions, eggplant, summer squash and more!
Once again, Catalpa Ridge will return in October with even more garlic varieties for our Third Annual Heirloom Garlic Festival, so mark your calendar for Saturday, Oct. 18 from 1 to 5 p.m., for free tastings of recipes made from “the stinking rose.”
For more information about either festival, call the Museum at (201) 656-2240, or visit www.hobokenmuseum.org.