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Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival To Take Place After Shortage Scare

In South Arkansas, the Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival will indeed take place this weekend.

The festival honors the pink tomato, Arkansas’s official fruit and vegetable, in a week long celebration complete with live music, games, and contests.

Arkansas tomato fans had a scare when the tomatoes were said to be in short supply just weeks before the festival.

Low temperatures in April stunted the progress of the tomatoes.

“We had three periods of about two or three days a piece where it would be in the low forties and then the next day, in the morning, it may have dropped down in the low thirties, followed by a day in the forties again.

Well tomatoes don’t grow when temperatures are that low,” said John Gavin of the Bradley County Extension Office.

These cold spells slowed the harvest of the tomatoes by a couple of weeks, cutting it close for the annual festival.

“The tomatoes were trying to grow and then they would stop because of the cool weather and then they would grow, and stop. That just delays everything,” said Gavin.

Luckily, thanks to rising temperatures over the past few days, the tomatoes have been harvested and are ready for the festival, with key events beginning Friday evening, continuing through the weekend in Warren.

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