About 30 miles east of Knoxville is the pleasant little town of Rutledge located in Grainger County Tennessee.

As all the local folks know in east Tennessee, Grainger County is to tomatoes what Vidalia, Georgia is to onions. Grainger County is, hands down the tomato capital of Tennessee.

To celebrate this luscious vegetable (or fruit if you prefer) the local folks hold an annual event called not surprisingly "The Grainger County Tomato Festival"

This weekend my lovely bride and I drove up to Rutledge to check it out. It was overcast and drizzly but that didn't seem to dampen the crowds; I estimate there were somewhere between 1500 to 2000 people attending along with a large group of exhibitors displaying and hawking everything from antique engines to local art to home grown and canned jams, jellies, honey, and other goodies.

This was the crowd at the front gate

Of course tomatoes were the star of the festival; here's the prize winners

And there were tomatoes of all sizes, colors, and shapes for sale along with lots of other local produce.

This is the remains of the "Tomato Wars" battleground where teams see who can hit the other guy the most with overripe tomatoes. All the round red things on the ground are ammo (overripe tomatoes).

And of course there lots of food including fried green tomatoes (Yummy)

A group of local ladies were giving a quilting demonstration. They take scraps of cloth and turn it into beautiful quilts that are works of art. Hand quilting is becoming a lost skill. I still remember both my grandmother and great-grandmother quilting out under a shade tree in the summer.

And of course no festival is complete without a souvenir T-shirt; we each got one.

There was a very patient cow for future farmers to test their skills on. Grainger County kids learn early where milk actually comes from and how to collect it.

Faith is very strong in rural east Tennessee. There were lots of "joyful noises" coming from the gospel singing tent.

Popping up a fresh kettle of flavored popcorn........Delicious!

There was a large group of Civil War buffs that had set up a camp for the weekend.

We left about 3:00 PM and the crowds were still rolling in despite the overcast and drizzly skies. It really wasn't a bad day; it's typically very hot when they hold the festival.

If you're ever around Knoxville and Grainger County during the last weekend in July a visit to the Grainger County Tomato Festival is always a fun thing to do.