<I>Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain</I><BR>Tomato tasters at the last Enterprise Farmer's Market of the season voted for their favorites in a number of catagories.

“I can’t believe there are so many kinds of tomatoes!” “Are they supposed to be that color?” “A tomato isn’t a tomato if it isn’t red.”

Reactions to last week’s tomato tasting at the Enterprise farmers’ market ran the gamut from wonder to mild disdain, but it definitely highlighted one of the strengths of such markets.

In this age of standardization, when boxes are manufactured to fit 24 identical heads of lettuce, and tomatoes are bred primarily to survive shipping around the globe, farmers’ markets provide diverse, delicious and occasionally weird alternatives.

Last Thursday the tomatoes, which were contributed by farmers and home gardeners from Wallowa and Baker counties, included the dusky oval Black Prince; the massive ivory-colored White Taterleaf; the small orange Jaunne d’Flamme; the pink grape Chiquita and almost 40 others.

Tomatoes were separated into four categories for voting: red, non-red, paste, and cherry/plum/grape tomatoes. A big yellow tomato called Limony was the far-and-away favorite for non-red tomatoes, as was the purplish Black Cherry in its category. Ever-popular Brandywine won the red category, while for pastes, Amish Paste edged out Italian Heirloom by a stem.

After passing through the line one man remarked, “Everything tasted like a tomato!” And yet how many ways can a tomato taste? Sweet, tangy, fruity, acidic… On Thursday there were as many ways as there were tomatoes.

Saturday at the Joseph market salsa-makers got to show off their hot stuff. Twelve salsas were entered into the salsa contest, and the entries were even more varied than the tomatoes had been on Thursday.

For one thing, not all the entries were made with tomatoes. Three were salsa verde, or green salsa made with tomatillos, and one (full disclosure: it was mine) featured daikon radish and corn. Tomato salsas ranged from sweet to smoky, mild to spicy, chunky to pureed. With so many delicious concoctions, one woman astutely remarked that the judging was more a measure of each taster’s preference than the cooks’ skills in the kitchen.

Nonetheless, Pam Royes of Joseph ruled the day, with her Pico de Gallo overwhelmingly winning the tomato salsa category and her salsa verde taking home the prize for non-tomato salsa.

Along with her balance of seasonings, tasters no doubt noticed the authenticity of her ingredients: the tomatoes, tomatillos, bell peppers, jalapenos, cilantro, garlic and onion were all grown on her property in Imnaha.

“I just believe in fresh ingredients and slow cooking,” Royes said.

Hear, hear.