Celebrate the Tomato Festival in Reynoldsburg

What began as one man’s fascination with perfecting what is now a commonly eaten food has grown into a decades-long celebration known as the Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival.  

In 1821, Alexander Livingston was born in a house off Waggoner Road and grew up to become a farmer. By 1845, he had leased a 113-acre farm in Reynoldsburg. Obsessed with the wild tomatoes that grew in the area, he began to cultivate his own and to study the plants before launching the Livingston Seed Co. in 1850.

“He started out by growing a small field of tomatoes, and then he went and picked the biggest and the best ones, and the next year he planted the seeds from those tomatoes,” says Mary Stoots, president of the Reynoldsburg-Truro Historical Society. 

For 15 years, Livingston selected what were considered the best seeds and took specimen tomatoes that had the qualities he sought: large fruit with a meaty interior and bright color, but after his many trials he was no further ahead than when he started. 

So, Livingston changed his approach and began selecting the tomatoes of the best quality from his fields and saving the plants. In the spring, he set just two rows of the plants in his garden. Each produced perfect tomatoes from the parent vine.  

After repeating this process, Livingston finally perfected his tomato in 1870. The fruit he called The Paragon was bright red and juicy, with solid meat on the inside and a durable, smooth skin. He went on to cultivate 31 more tomato varieties. 

Livingston’s legacy is memorialized during the Tomato Festival held in Reynoldsburg each August. (This year’s is set for Aug. 13 through 15.) Originally called The Heritage Holiday Festival and Tomato Show when it debuted in August 1966, the event has turned into an all-out celebration of Livingston’s contributions and Reynoldsburg community pride. 

A tomato contest lets local growers show off their prize plants, while the crowd-favorite Tomato Wars sees participants take part in a dodgeball-style game. The more family-friendly Tomato Smash contest sees who can stomp out the most tomato juice. 

“Alexander had started a revolution. With the Paragon, tomato culture began at once to be the great enterprise of the country,” Stoots says. “Today, the crop is grown in every state in the Union.” Huber Park, 1640 Davidson Dr., Reynoldsburg 43068, 614/322-6819, reytomatofest.com

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