• SLIDESHOW

Some came just to buy locally grown tomatoes.

"We didn't even know anything else was going on," Rick Arline said of the children's rides and vendor's booths, buzzing in the background as he looked through a box of vine-ripened tomatoes at yesterday's Hanover Tomato Festival.

Others were there for the fun and to savor the famed flavor of the Hanovers -- not out of any concern that tomatoes grown elsewhere have been linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak.

"I haven't worried about it at all," James Eads of Chesterfield County said of the salmonella scare as he carried a bag of tomatoes to his car. "My wife looks forward to the arrival of the Hanover tomatoes."

Whatever the motivation that drew about 40,000 people to Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, the Hanover Tomato Festival likely set a record for tomato sales yesterday on its 30th anniversary.

"We sold every tomato we could get our hands on," said Greg Sager, director of Hanover County Parks and Recreation Department. No one could remember ever selling more, he said.

By about noon the initial supply of 130 bushels was gone, which was the total number sold last year, Sager said. More tomatoes were ordered.

And by the time the festival ended, a total of 202 bushels had been sold at the event, which is a fundraiser for the Black Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

Sager said he thought the salmonella outbreak was one reason for the increase in demand for the festival's tomatoes.

"That has done nothing but drive sales through the roof," said Sager as he helped direct a steady influx of cars.

Concern about the nationwide salmonella outbreak was the reason that drew Arline to the festival for the first time. The western Henrico County resident said he has not purchased a supermarket tomato because of the outbreak.

His mother-in-law, Arline Myers of Richmond, said she thought it was "hogwash" that the Food and Drug Administration has not been able to determine what is causing the salmonella outbreak.

. . .

The FDA yesterday increased the number of people reported to have been made ill in the outbreak but also said it is testing other types of fresh produce in addition to tomatoes.

Nationwide, 943 cases have been reported, with at least 130 hospitalizations, since mid-April. The FDA is looking at jalapeno peppers as a possible culprit, as well as other ingredients used to make salsa.

Such news is the reason Myers said she won't buy tomatoes unless she knows where they came from.

It's also why a lot of people prefer Hanover tomatoes, Sager said. They not only know the tomatoes were grown locally "but even know who the grower was."

The festival's tomatoes are supplied by Jane and Robert Dodd, who are well-known in Hanover, he said.

Where the tomatoes were grown was on the minds of many of the early buyers at yesterday's festival, said Justin Fitz, who worked in one of two booths selling tomatoes.

People were eyeing the cartons and then double-checking that they were buying Hanover tomatoes when they did not see it on the label, he said.

Ashilee Morris, who worked alongside Fitz, said people were lined up to buy tomatoes even before the event opened at 9 a.m.

The tomatoes were being sold in bags --$5 for about 5 pounds or $8 for about 10 pounds. But so many people wanted the whole 25-pound carton that they started selling those for $20 until supplies ran short.

"We didn't expect to sell cases," Fitz said.

Which may have been why Bernie Davis of Mechanicsville left the festival "a little disappointed" before the reinforcements arrived early in the afternoon.

"I love Hanover tomatoes, obviously," said Davis, who added that he is not so fond of the FDA, which he wants to stop picking on tomatoes.

"The FDA knows not what they are doing," he said.

Only a small number of people have been made sick by produce, he said.

"All vegetables are safe, but that's not to say they don't collect something along the way," Davis said, as he prepared to head down the road to find his tomatoes elsewhere.

. . .

Tomato talk aside, there was plenty else going on at the Hanover Tomato Festival.

Festivalgoers ducked in out of a light drizzle to listen to bluegrass and other entertainment in one tent. In another, children could win prizes in the tomato walk or best-dressed tomato contest, in which they decorated real tomatoes.

They could ride little ponies on the merry-go-round or very large live ones supplied by WinnDell Farms.

Churches gave out free water and marigolds.

The politicians also were there -- Republican Jim Gilmore and Democrat Mark Warner showed up to campaign for U.S. Senate.

Contact Karin Kapsidelis at (804) 649-6119 or kkapsidelis@timesdispatch.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.