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the tomato is a summer staple. Dubbed the 'jersey tomato'--- this locally grown delicacy is robust in flavor and largely sought after, thanks to our rich soil.
Long-term Salem residents fondly remember the smell of tomatoes wafting through the town from the local Heinz factory, which employed so many in town.
The Salem City Tomato Festival is an annual festival hosted on the third Saturday in August.
Celebrating the nostalgia of the Heinz tomato factory in town, Salem County's agricultural contributions, & the delicious Jersey tomato.
This popular event shuts down Market Street in historic Downtown Salem and hosts live music, history unique local vendors, a car show, art gallery, unique tomato foods, & tomato themed fun!
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This vintage photo of Salem County shows the H.J. Heinz Plant on Griffith Street in Salem. This postcard view, from across Fenwick Creek, shows the plant in the very early 1900s. The plant opened around 1905 and processed locally grown tomatoes into ketchup and chili sauce for decades. In the late 1970s, the plant, once a year-round operation, laid off most of its employees and turned to a seasonal operation processing tomato paste and sauce. In late 1977 Heinz announced plans to shutter the plant for good and the doors closed in early 1978. Many longtime city residents still remember the aroma of the cooking ketchup drifting through the air in Salem. In 1977, the plant's last full year, Heinz bought $1.5 million worth of tomatoes from 20 local farmers, according to newspaper archives. Part of the main building at the plant stood vacant for years until it was razed.
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