As you may have gathered from the title of this post, today is all about TOMATOES! Why, you ask, on Labor Day, are we featuring this red fruit so prominently?
(It feels weird to call a tomato a fruit, no? Sorry, side tangent).
Labor Day is like Christmas come early for this family. You see, Ash’s husband grew up as a member of a hunting and fishing club in the Poconos of Pennsylvania, where, every Labor Day, the members of this club gather and throw tomatoes at each other in an epic “Tomato War.” There’s lots of red lipstick war paint, and crawling through brush and bushes, only to be beaned in the face with an unripe tomato and sent to the “common grave” to consume beer at 10am.
It is genius.
And because today also happens to be Ash and James’ 2 year wedding anniversary, we thought we’d offer a proper epic giveaway to accompany these two glorious occasions. Love among the flying tomatoes.
GIVEAWAY ALERT: Many thanks to all of our wonderful giveaway contributors for all the tomato goodies featured below! To enter to win over $100 worth of tomato delights, comment on this post and tell us how you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend. We thinks it’s pretty clear what we’re up to! Go Red Army!
1. Still Life with Tomatoes by Grey Chickadee
2. Tomato Earrings by Mouse Market
3. Sew Fashionable Ring by Mrs. Dazo
4. Salut Letterpress Card by Vertallee
5. “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off” Tote by Crows With Bows
6. Harvest Print by Shannon Blue Photography
7. Reusable Produce Bag with Tomato Screenprint by Cough Cough Choke
8. Tommie- Plushie Tomato by Janie XY
We weren't kidding.
Strangely enough, part of my Labor Day is going to be spent in the garden picking tomatoes. We’ll also visit a local festival to see what’s going on there.
Flying in our plane and spending the day at the lake with family
alholm.co at gmail dot com
We are spending the last few days at home and together before my husband has to go back to work from paternity leave.
Great post,
Summer time is such a happy time season and a big part of it is our..Tomatoes!
Although we live in the city we always have some sort of veggie garden and many herbs in containers. This year we tried Pear Tomatoes..they are yellow tomatoes,very tiny and of course have a pear shape.
I will be harvesting more in the morning
Cheers!!!
My son and I are making salsa, and a few last minute things before some of his friends come over today for a cookout.
twoofakind12@yahoo.com
We don’t celebrate Labor Day in Italy, sadly, but we are plenty of tomatoes
If I were in the U.S. I would celebrate eating icecream outside and going to a museum.
Seriously I love tomatoes – I think I will celebrate Labor Day with a big fat juicy tomato sandwich – a favorite of mine. Of course, we have to have a cookout this evening – after my tomato sandwich that is!!
Labor Day weekend is filled with art, visited gallery openings with friends on Friday night, a wonderful sale of pottery and fine crafts on Saturday, Sunday and Monday when not hanging out with my sweetheart, out in the studio working on a painting and an assemblage. Perfect weekend!
Having yummy food! and seeing this I feel like eating something with tomatoes!
This weekend involves a little beach, a little friends, and a little fun. All that you really need in life!
I wanna win!!!
Great idea & celebratory fun. Tomatoes are one of the most beautiful food items out there . . .
I am spending my Labor Day traveling home from the beach. I absolutely love tomatoes!! I am crossing my fingers that I win this one!
Labor day is my birthday this year! As a present to myself I cleaned the house and painted a bunch and am sewing all day! Thanks mom for having me!
We went for a hike in the mountains to enjoy the fresh, fall mountain air. It was beautiful!
We spent a beautiful weekend at the beach (thanks, Hurricane Earl, for your fine weather) and then slept in this morning. Now watching Tom & Jerry cartoons and lazing about- is there any better way to spend a day off?
Thanks to hurricane, the Cape was shockingly empty. Hooray for white sand and blue water.
I didn’t get a single tomato out of my “garden” this year. We are spending the day at home, cleaning and will head down to the lake for a dip as soon as my little one wakes up. What gorgeous weather for it! It’s starting to feel like September.
I’m enjoying my Labor Day Weekend grilling with my family this afternoon and now we are about to watch a movie – probably she’s the man if my cousin gets her way!
Spent the day at the beach.
I spent my labor day fishing (well watching them fish) with my 7 and 5 yr old sons and then folded laundry with my 5 yr old daughter. Which doesn’t really sound like fun. But I like to hear her ramble on and on while we fold towels.
brookt_99@yahoo.com
Sadly, my labor day weekend was spent writing my first 3 papers for grad school! Not really a “fun” experience, but certainly a worthwhile one.
We had a wonderful weekend at the lake with mine and my husband’s family. Much needed family time and relaxation time!
We drove 6 hours north to Oregon to watch friends get married on the same farm where her parents were married 30 years ago! It was incredibly beautiful!
Every year for Labor Day weekend my team and I organize a family camp for about 200 people from our church. We play games, eat, relax, sing, eat, swim, learn, fabricate and launch 2-liter bottle “rockets”, eat, nap, play, eat, and enjoy each others company 10 minutes from Yosemite National Park. It’s a lot of work, but absolutely worth it to watch 75 kids make marshmallow shooters and do battle with their parents!
i am spending the day relaxing in the house..it’s raining! Thank you so much for the giveaway!
We visited the Farmers Pike festival, and went furniture shopping
We celebrate labor day on the 1st of May in the Philippines, and we don’t really do anything special
This year, I spent time with my family — did absolutely NOTHING. Having a tomato war sounds amazing though. Maybe we can try that next year! 
For lunch, I made a plate of nachos with the most amazing red and good-tasting tomato
) Then, I spent most of the day knitting
I so happened to be at the same place we all were 2 years ago…Yup. I was in the Berkshires, staying at the Porches with my family. Quite remarkably as the threat of Hurricane Earl rolled in, I sat there looking at mountains remembering the threat of rain and wind during that fabulous wedding weekend! Made me miss the fun, amazing time it was! Happy 2 wonderful years–I wish you both many billion more to come full of laughter, memories and lots of tomato throwing! xoxo
This weekend was fantastic! We headed down to the states for the night with friends to shop, shop, shop! As always, long weekends pass to quickly!
We bought a new couch! And did laundry and dishes.
I had to work a ten hour day. :/ I love tomatoes though!
wow, what a great package. Who would have thunk Tomato earrings?
I am enjoying hanging out in the yard (before it rained) and watching the Yankee game and US Open tennis.
Well, we don’t have this holiday here in France, but we spent a very nice weekend anyway: We went to Disneyland Paris. It was the first time for our little boy and everyone enjoyed it so much!
blancetcaramel@gmail.com
We celebrate labor day on the 1st of May in the Republic of Belarus too. Now in autumn season we have a lot of tomatoes here in Belarus thats why we could organize something like tomato war too, very nice idea indeed!
I’ve been sewing tiny plushies for a craft swap! It’s been a lot of fun creating!
We were as traditional as it gets. A BBQ with the family. Our dinner did feature grilled tomatoes, strangely enough. It’s a good thing I didn’t know there were such amazing accessories that I was missing, or I might have felt left out.
I love this!!! Well, I took my first ever trip to Ikea which was a lot of fun. We just moved into our first home with a 7 month old and the construction and work has been tedious. I really enjoyed all the nice things they had there. I also spent the weekend dealing with unexpected plumbing repairs which was not so fun, but necessary. Thanks so much for the GREAT giveaway!!!
Lake and football! Doesn’t get any better than that in the South!
I just had a relaxing weekend around town. Went to the beach and had some tacos, went on a bike ride, and did some crafting! Oh, and there were mimosas!
I *love* tomatoes! I spent my Labor Day at a reunion with some college girlfriends in Okeechobee Florida. We went to the rodeo and a bar with live cowboy music… best Labor Day ever!
our tomatoes are just starting to ripen in the garden- a late season. we spent the weekend preparing for middle school! my baby is growing up!
We went to the First Nations Festival and had a great time seeing presantations, including perhaps the sweetest little dancer ever, art displays and speakers.My girls got the chance to do some wonderful crafts and do a dry land canoe race to
Very fun. My youngest and I also picked and froze some blackberries to be enjoyed later in the year in smoothies and on pancakes.
We spent the weekend geocaching in the beautiful weather!
RELAXING!!! and enjoying husband being home for a whole three days staight when we don’t even get three different days in a month usually!!!
Had a wonderful cuban sandwich sitting on the grass at the Arboretum catching up with a friend, kayaked and soaked up the sun on the beach, and hiked to the top of Mt. Cardigan and took in the amazing views for miles!
Not much going on with us, we’ve been housesitting my boyfriend’s parents’ house while they were out of town, putting some summer fruits away for the winter, and picking the small crop of wild blueberries.
Ironically, I spent my labor day catching up on work for school!!! It was nice to feel productive.
I cleaned out my closet, and also paid a visit to a favorite blog: tomatonation.com. I like the advice column there, The Vine.
I had a yummy late lunch with my brother & sister in law at a favorite restaurant. I also slept a lot which was divine .
Thank you.
sabrita@juno.com
That is an awesome tradition!! We spent our Labor Day weekend just hanging around the house, entertained a friend who was in town for a wedding, and doing some little projects. Sometimes the best vacations are spent in the quiet of home.
I’m so bummed that our tomatoes are just sitting there, green on the vine. I’m about ready to chuck them in a green tomato throwing party.
I was trying to finish painting the living room over labor day, but made time to go to the park and cook salmon on the grill–without my coveted red tomatoes!
Love this idea!!! grasspons@gmail.com
We celebrated our oldest son’s birthday on September 4th! We still make every age a celebration with our family. Then, my husband had to leave
to go out of town on business.
Thanks, Cindi
Well I am up in Puyallup, WA which is a city a little outside of Seattle. It is the Puyallup State Fair! It’s one of the largest in the US and it is so much fun. ambrerose at aol dot com
Sigh. Homework. There was always homework. But for fun stuff, my family and I just ate dinner and relaxed/lounged around for the Labor Day weekend.
I enjoyed Labor Day weekend by preparing for a week-long trip in and to Reno, NV and back!
ohmygosh I love all of these lovely tomatoes. My Labor Day included a little croquet match and post-game drinks in Nashville.
our labor day is on may 1st. we used to celebrate it together at the main square… parade, music, bands. but later many people started to enjoy this days as a free of work and stayed with their families at home or went to short trips… for me it is pleasant lazy day.:-)
I was on Maui.
We have BBQ with all the family.
Basically our labour day weekend was us just relaxing and chilling at home as a family, and cleaning too.
theknitwitbyshair@hotmail.com
I made vegan cupcakes with homemade frosting and spent the rest of the time reading.
I unfortunately was working, animals have to still eat
Congrats, Julie!