Volt/Big White Barn Heirloom Tomato Festival a Big Disappointment

Bryan Voltaggio preparing heirloom tomato and shrimp ceviche with dehydrated tomato cotton candy and tomato dippin dotsI think it's in my blood to love tomatoes--my great-grandfather actually wrote a book on tomatoes aptly called "the Tomato."  I was really, really excited to go to the first ever heirloom tomato festival at the Big White Barn in Frederick, Maryland.  What a disappointment!

I've never run an heirloom tomato festival before, let alone attended one, but I know if I was in charge I would ensure that my featured centerpiece was perfect.  I don't claim to be a tomato expert, but I do know that you should never ever refrigerate tomatoes.  It ruins the texture and the flavor of the fruit (yes, technically, a tomato is a fruit).  Unfortunately, all of the tomatoes were pre-cut and preserved in coolers.  It was incredibly difficult to taste the differences in the varieties, and sadly most of the tomatoes tasted terrible.

I was also excited to try the heirloom tomato bloody Marys.  Sadly, I wasn't enough of a lush to get one as soon as we arrived at the festival and by the time I decided to try one at 3:00 (the festival started at 2) the guy in front of me literally was served the last one.  I guess I'll have to experiment and make one at home.

Thankfully, it wasn't all bad.  It was a beautiful day and the farm is lovely.  Volt restaurant prepared a really interesting concoction--a heirloom tomato and shrimp ceviche, topped with heirloom tomato "dippin dots" and dehydrated tomato cotton enjoying an heirloom tomato popsicle (yes, the chefs are making fun of me because I ate so many!)candy.  The ceviche wasn't anything special, but the dippin dots and the cotton candy were amazing.  The cotton candy had an intense tomato flavor and the combination of the sweet ice cream with a little bit of salt in the cotton candy was delicious.  My favorite part was tasting Restaurant Nora's heirloom tomato popsicles.  The heirloom tomato juice was sweetened with a bit of agave syrup.  I shamelessly kept on going back for seconds (and thirds and fourths).  As much as I loved the popsicles, they weren't worth the $50 admission fee.  Yes, I do have sucker written on my forehead.