posted by Jeff Bundschu
A few weeks back, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, another in a long long line of firsts took place here on Rhinefarm—An honest to goodness tomato fight.
The occasion was my longtime friend and all around legend AJ Riebli’s 40th birthday. We came up with a plan to replicate La Tomatina, the famous Spanish event, in Sonoma after plans to attend the real thing were beautifully thwarted by the arrival of Helen Riebli (all 7lbs +/- of her) earlier this year. Not discouraged, AJ pushed forward, and with a team of good friends and his wonderful wife Anne, pulled off the event of the summer.
A very abridged timeline is as follows:
Early 09 - Confirmation received that 15,000 pounds of tomatoes could be had (relatively) easily and inexpensively
June 09 - Block 12 on Rhinefarm, currently fallow, secured as location
July 09 - Strangest Evite ever gets sent out to 400+ of AJ’s closest friends around the world telling them the date and time, and that in accordance to tradition, they must be wearing white to participate
Sunday, Aug 9th - An egg truck pulling grape gondolas carrying AJ and egg farmer pick up tomatoes in Las Banos. Tomatoes remain in gondolas in shade until morning of fight.
Aug 10-14th - Block mowed, parking markers laid, hay bales secured, trailer and portapotty readied.
Aug 14th - 40 Gallons Sangria prepared
AUGUST 15TH:
11am - Gondolas moved to field and tomatoes dumped
1pm - Guests begin arriving
2:30pm - Most guests there, all in white, including three in bridal dresses. 1 keg of beer empty, 15 gallons of Sangria gone.
2:35pm - AJ gives welcome speech, and proceeds to tomato pile, whereby all the kids get a 5 min head start in beaning him
2:40-3:30pm - Total pandemonium Tomatoes flying everywhere. Tomato skins give way to juice and then to mud and soon everyone is gooped.
3:30-4:15pm - After party glow abounds. Water truck giving baths.
6:00pm - Kidless afterparty starts
Those of you who know me know that I am always up for most anything that sounds like it all might be fun, and will always risk a big effort (and sometimes even life and limb) to put it together. This perspective is inherited, and for me dates back to my earliest days of skiing with my dad, and later surfing and duck hunting and even party-going on my own or with friends.
This belief states ‘You never know unless you go’, and is applicable to most anything interesting that requires effort to do, while accepting a serious amount of uncertainty about the viability of the intended outcome. It directly counters our human predisposition to staying on our booties to avoid getting all geared up for things that might turn out bunk.
Subsribers to this philosophy know that booty sitting is almost always the wrong path to take in the face of uncertainty. Accordingly, I went into this full steam, securing and prepping the block, getting the hay bales and various other accessories, all the while having no clue how the thing would turn out. Of course I trusted it would be a good and interesting time, but neither I or any one else on the set up crew had ever seen, let alone participated in anything like this.
Philosophy and all, though, I was in no way prepared for the amount of fun the fight actually was. Three hundred people went from grownups to kids in a matter of minutes and didn’t grow up again for nearly an hour. It was so so so much fun. More than I possibly could have imagined, and I mean it. Once again it was proven that you really don’t know, unless you go!!!!!!!
Here is comprehensive link to a huge bunch of photos. If you are short on time, get to the slideshow and scroll forward to photo 160ish. Here a few to wet your whistle.
Our fearless leader, AJ Riebli
Action shot: That would be the royal we tossing tomatoes at the camera.
Post-marination, l to r: me, AJ and Chris Benziger
