By Molly Lovell
Staff Writer

Despite downpours Saturday, the second annual Tomato Tasting Day at the Kennebunk Farmers Market was anything but a wash.
Visitors wandered in and out of St. Martha’s Church sampling tomatoes and judging favorites based on the appearance and taste of both hybrids and heirlooms.
The market usually takes place every Saturday at the town’s municipal parking lot on Route 1, but it was moved into the church to keep the tomato tasters dry.
Besides dealing with foul weather, event organizer Tami York said getting this year’s event off the ground was a challenge because many farmers lost their tomato crops to late blight.
The event had to be postponed for a couple weeks because of a lack of edible tomatoes.
“Last year was a decent tomato year. They [farmers] could afford to let their gold standard crop go for less or be completely donated,” York said.
This year the Maine Department of Agriculture warned growers about blight in June and cautioned them against using tomato seedlings from large retailers.
According to a release, the company that produced the infected seedlings was Bonnie Plants of Alabama. The company immediately pulled the seedlings from their stock and destroyed them.
Ken Gustin, an administrative officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture who deals with claims regarding poor crop conditions, said it’s difficult to measure the severity of blight in the state because growers are still busy finishing out the season.
Gustin said he should have more concrete numbers in the next few weeks when growers get insurance policies ready for next year. He urges growers who had unsuccessful crops to contact his department about its permanent disaster program.
While blight, along with cold weather and a soggy start to summer, devastated small growers, York said area farms donated more than a dozen “gorgeous” tomatoes for the event.
“In the face of limited supply, they have been very, very generous,” York said.
Linda Fenderson and her husband John run Fenderson Farm on Route 5 in Saco and also experienced this year’s blight.
Blight appeared on the Fenderson’s tomatoes in a span of a day and a half. They treated the plants with fungicide and immediately stripped the infected plants from the area, along with the healthy plants in the vicinity.
But the Fendersons still ended up losing about two-thirds of their tomato plants
Besides blight, weather was a factor in some of the couple’s other plants doing poorly both this year and last year, but Fenderson said she doesn’t give up easily.
“Last year was bad, this year was worse, but it’s all about being tenacious. You have to keep planting.”

Matt Linehan of Sparrow Arc Farm in Unity couldn’t donate tomatoes for the event because he lost most of his crop in early August.
“They looked good until Aug. 10. Then in a span of four days they contracted late blight,” he said.
He said blight looks like “black calluses” on the side of the fruit. Blight, Linehan said, can be spread through the air or on the tires of vehicles.
As a result of blight, Linehan lost about 2,000 plants and $15,000 in selling the plants. In a typical season his farm produces 2,000 pounds of tomatoes a week, while this year he averaged about 500.
Blight also hit some of his potato crop, but Linehan said he dug the crop out early and was able to recover most of the cost.
A full-time farmer for six years and regular at the Kennebunk Farmers Market every week, this was Linehan’s first experience with blight.
“I’ve never seen any crop disease move this fast. This stuff is bad,” he said.