BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Tomato lovers unite! The second annual ‘Mater Fest returns to the Town of Shallotte to celebrate all things tomato in Mulberry Park this weekend.
Last year Brunswick was named one of the top tomato producing counties in the state. So, The Brunswick County Cooperative Extension teamed up with Brunswick County Parks and Recreation and Shallotte to organize a celebration.
Melinda Johnson with Brunswick County Parks and Recreation, said that, “We really wanted to highlight the farmers. Plus, it’s a great reason for people to come out and enjoy the park.”
Morgan McKnight, with the Brunswick County Cooperative extension, said the park was actually created for the Farmer’s Market, and was the perfect venue for the event.
‘Mater Fest 2017
The free festival begins at 9 a.m., with the opening of the weekly farmer’s market. From there, a full schedule of games and activities will be taking place until 1 p.m.
Events range from a kids arts and crafts area, to games like the “Watermelon Roll,” and the “Tomato Toss.”
There will be a “tomato recipe taste testing” area, where participants will be able to try out dishes produced by the farmers of Brunswick County. If you like what you taste, you can get the recipes right there in the gazebo.
“In the Shallotte Community Garden, we’ll be having a tomato growing contest, where participants will be able to enter their own tomatoes,” McKnight said. “We’ll have different categories for things like ‘large red, medium red, small red, large yellow,’ different categories like that. Then we’ll have live music, and the regular market will be set up as well.”
According to McKnight, they moved this years festival up a few weeks to take advantage of prime tomato growing season. She says that last year, the farmers actually ended up running out of tomatoes pretty early, but that won’t be the case this time around.
“We’ve actually had some of our growers holding their crops for market, just so that they would have plenty in preparation for this,” she said. “So, we should be seeing a lot of variety and color, it’s going to be really good.”
McKnight says that since last year was the first festival, organizers weren’t entirely sure what to expect, estimating approximately 500 people to participate. At the end of the day, over 1,200 people showed up to celebrate the Brunswick County tomato farmers.
“This year, we have more farmers, five for sure that will be selling tomatoes, but there could be more,” she said. “Then we’ll also have our regular market vendors, and others who will be doing arts and crafts and things like that.”
Melinda Johnson says that the popular “tomato red” ‘Mater Fest t-shirts will be on sale once again for the event.
For more information, visit the the Brunswick County Parks and Rec. Facebook page, or the Brunswick County Cooperative Extension site at brunswick.ces.ncsu.edu.
On the map: Mulberry Park in Shallotte, Brunswick County.
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