You can say tomato or tomahto, but the planning committee of the 20th Annual TomatoFest has no plans of calling the whole thing off.

The board of directors began working on the event only weeks after the completion of last year's festivities. TomatoFest, located at Emerson Park, will go on rain or shine 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Of course, co-president Janice Sanders is hoping for the shine.

"It's just a fun-filled family event where everyone can find something they're interested in," Sanders said.

Every year, about 13,000 people attend the two-day festival, which collects money and food for Cayuga County residents. Last year, TomatoFest donated $15,000 and 1,800 canned goods to local food pantries, Sanders said.

Sanders noted that the pantries receive the money in the first part of December, during a crucial post-Thanksgiving period.

Yet, cans of soup and vegetables are hardly the only foodstuffs involved in TomatoFest.

Michael Padula, the other co-president of the festival, runs the fried green tomato booth. Padula said that the booth goes through about eight bushels of tomatoes - or 3,000 to 4,000 slices - each year. Buyers receive six to eight slices for $1.

"It's not a sweet taste, but it's not a sour taste," Padula said of the unripened, locally grown tomatoes. "It's the batter that brings it right along."

The fried green tomato booth will also feature BLT sandwiches (emphasis on the "T").

Additional food vendors will offer crawdaddies, fried dough, fruit smoothies, pork sandwiches and other fair-like goodies.

Still, the festival is not all about the world's favorite fruit-mistaken-for-a-vegetable.

The name was chosen because the festival comes at the end of the tomato season, but a good deal of TomatoFest revolves around community participants.

Local vendors sell their wares, from dried flower arrangements to T-shirts to stained glass. Not-for-profits set up displays for public awareness about what they have to offer.

And musical and children's entertainment appears throughout.

Festival-goers can also take a pontoon boat ride on Owasco Lake. Sanders said that last yeartorrential downpours before TomatoFest put a stop to the one-hour rides, which cost $5. Also missing from last year's festival was a quilting guild. The guild is back this year to give demonstrations and raffle off a handmade quilt.

If you go

What: 20th Annual TomatoFest

When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: Emerson Park, Owasco

Cost: $3 for adults, $1 or a canned good for children under 8

For details: Visit www.cayuganet.org/

tomatofest

Staff writer Linda Ober can be

reached at 253-5311 ext. 237

or linda.ober@lee.net