The tomato is one of the star products of homes and Catalan orchards. It is estimated that there are more than a hundred varieties, which can be consumed in a thousand ways. Raw, cooked, whole, crushed, dressed, with sofrito, in soups or gazpachos, preserved or rubbed on a good slice of bread... Originally from America, it is estimated that the history of this lycopene-rich fruit began in Catalonia in the 18th century, at the hands of the farmers of the Maresme region and the Llobregat delta, who began its cultivation. Viladecans is one of the municipalities of the Llobregat Agricultural Park that has most distinguished itself in the tomato sector and, for this reason, on September 30 it will host the celebration of the first Tomato Festival.
Organized by the Viladecans City Council and Ametller Origen, this event aims to be a song of exaltation in favor of this popular product, appreciated for its aroma, flavor and texture, rich in vitamin C and indispensable in the Mediterranean diet. The festival will have three main highlights: explaining the origin, cultivation and culinary versatility of the tomato, and has set out to achieve an important challenge: organizing the largest tomato tasting in the world.
The I Viladecans Tomato Festival will begin on Saturday the 30th at ten in the morning and, until five in the afternoon, visitors will be able to participate in multiple workshops and showcookings to learn everything about tomatoes, which they can also purchase at a Farmers' Market where there will be an exhibition of unique tomato varieties. Renowned chefs such as Ada Parellada and Vicent Guimerà will participate in the event, which will also focus on sustainable cooking and will include a screening of the documentary Los tomates escuchan a Wagner. In addition, there will be children's games and creative workshops for the little ones in the house.
"We have prepared a festival to discover the infinity of existing tomato varieties, to learn first-hand how they are grown, how they are used in cooking and how to make the most of their nutritional properties," explain the organizers of the festival which, in this first edition, will feature the Viladecans Cherry tomato, grown in the Agricultural Park, and the Tip-Top pink tomato, grown in the fields that Ametller Origen has in Viladecans.
The event will take place in the Plaça de la Mediterrània and in the Cúbic building and will be ambiented with music and food trucks to grab a bite. The simultaneous tomato tasting challenge is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., with the idea of bringing together more than 300 people eating tomatoes at the same time. Before this objective, during the morning, visitors will be able to participate in three showcooking sessions: one led by Ada Parellada, the chef of the Semproniana restaurant; one by Michelin-starred, green-starred, and Repsol Sol chef Vicent Guimerà, from the L'Antic Molí restaurant in Ulldecona; and another by the University Center for Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy of the University of Barcelona (CETT).
In the morning and afternoon, three cooking workshops will also be held to discover the versatility of tomatoes and which variety is best to use to prepare a salad, a stuffed tomato, or a sauce. One of the workshops will be for children's cooking, and there will also be one focused on cooking with Tip Top pink tomatoes, which are characterized by being very aromatic. The fight against food waste will play a central role in the festival, with workshops to learn how to transform tomatoes into jam taught by Es im-perfect, the vegetable preserve brand created by the Espigoladors Foundation, which works for labor insertion and food transformation.
For gazpacho fans, there is an activity that will surprise them: a tasting where they will have to guess the ingredients used in the preparation of different types of gazpacho. In parallel, the youngest members of the family can let their imagination run wild in a creative space where they will be offered activities throughout the day such as coloring tomato varieties with wax paints, painting a clay pot, making their tomato lollipop with sticks and cardboard, and learning how to plant different varieties of tomato.
Hand in hand with DOCS Barcelona, the Viladecans Tomato Festival will bring to citizens the story of two ingenious cousins who decide to invent an innovative tomato cultivation system where Wagner's music plays a leading role. The documentary The Tomatoes Listen to Wagner received the DocsBarcelona Audience Award in 2019 and can be seen in original version with Catalan subtitles at the Cúbic Building, where three screenings will be held at 11:30h and 15:30h, for which prior registration is required.
Another highlight of this first festival will be the scientific workshops, organized by the Viladecans Foundation and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, which will allow, for example, learning how to extract DNA from a tomato or to know its PH. Six sessions will be held, for which it is also necessary to reserve a place. It is interesting to know that botanically tomatoes are considered a fruit, however, nutritionally they are a vegetable that provides numerous health benefits. For example, they are an important source of antioxidants, due to their high content of vitamin C, since a serving of tomato covers 61% of the recommended daily intake of this nutrient, although it also contains vitamin A and B, as well as carotenes and fiber, making them an ideal ally for intestinal transit.
Better raw or cooked?
And why are tomatoes red? The answer lies in lycopene, a plant pigment found in greater or lesser quantities depending on the type of tomato. The pear tomato, for example, is the one that contains the most lycopene, although the degree of ripeness (red is higher in ripe tomatoes) and the method of cultivation and ripening also influence the color, since it is higher in those grown outdoors and ripened on the plant. And what is better, eating the tomato raw or cooked? The nutrients are the same, but cooked tomato has a greater antioxidant effect than a raw tomato because it absorbs lycopene better. If cooked with olive oil, the antioxidant effects improve even more.
In addition to learning all these curiosities, the festival will allow a deeper understanding of the Viladecans Cherry, a sweet and smooth tomato, elongated in shape and marketed on the vine. This Cherry variety has become the main crop in the Viladecans area and the Agricultural Park. Promoted by the Viladecans City Council and in collaboration with the Agricultural Cooperative and the Viladecans Hospitality Guild, the Cherry has become a project of cooperation and commitment to the territory, producers, businesses, and restaurateurs of the city and various institutions.
For its part, the Tip Top pink tomato is cultivated exclusively in Ametller Origen fields in Viladecans and is characterized by being very aromatic and having a unique sweetness thanks to slightly salinized irrigation.
Check the website www.festatomaquet.cat and don't miss out on spots to participate in the different activities. This 1st Viladecans Tomato Festival has the support of Tip Top Tomatoes, Love by Salad, Blue Planet, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Fundación Viladecans, and Es Im-perfect.