The Dundee Township Visitor's Center

Looking Forward to Seeing You!

The Dundee Township Visitor's Center (a.k.a. The Depot) will open for trail users and visitors Saturday, May 11. We've missed you, so please stop in and say hi! Thanks to our fabulous volunteers, we'll be offering extended hours to include weekdays. Yay!

M-F, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Sat., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sun., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Farmer's Market season also starts Saturday May 11! We look forward to seeing everyone again and meeting new friends too!

Be sure to visit our Facebook page for current news, photos and results of our annual Largest Tomato and Great Pumpkin contests. Shop local, and see you soon!

Booth fees from our market support the depot and allow us to keep the doors open, so shop early and often!

The Dundee Farmer's Market is held 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday mid May through October. We typically get around 40 vendors each week selling veggies (in season), honey, flowers, and bedding plants, plus soaps, antiques, and collectibles. New vendors are always welcome!
Call (847) 426-4307 for booth information and visit our rules and regulations page for other details about becoming a vendor.

We had lots of entries for our 13th-annual tomato contest!
Scroll waaaay down to see the the results.

(Read about last year's contest here)

Our closing day for the market includes the annual Great Pumpkin contest.
Story and pictures also below...scroll waaaaay down!
(Read about last year's contest here)

Behold Here and Now Herb singing the infamous banana song! You know it's going to be a good day when there are bananas to be had at the depot.

Read all about our annual contests below...

13th-Annual Tomato Contest Winners Announced

Shown here from left are contest organizer Bill Zelsdorf, winner Norm Thomas,3rd place Steve Tobler, 4th place Gail Russell, and 2nd place Adam Tobler.

By JULIE MULLEN For Sun-Times Media

[August 21, 2010, East Dundee, IL] While growing tomatoes is for sustenance, it's also a social endeavor, according to 82 year-old East Dundee resident Norm Thomas.

"I do it more for fun and for friends," Thomas said. "I end up with tons of them for family and neighbors. I grow them mainly to share them with people."

August marks the height of tomato ripening for the area, which is why those with a knack for spawning a huge varietal came to the Dundee Township Visitor's Center on Saturday.

Area residents flocked to the 13th annual Largest Tomato Contest to hopefully share in the $1,000 in prizes being doled out.

Thomas took first place for his two-pound, eight- and one-eighth-ounce giant split-apart fruit that was, perhaps, better for weighing than for eating.

"I didn't want to eat that one; it was bad news," Thomas said with a laugh.

Second place, with a tomato weighing just one-eighth of an ounce less than Thomas', went to Elgin resident Adam Tobler. Third place was captured by his father, Steve Tobler, who grew a two-pound, four-ounce tomato, followed by Gail Russell in fourth place, with one weighing two-pounds, three-and-five-eighths ounces.

Twenty-four entries in all were brought in to the contest on Saturday. Tomatoes were judged by weight, and could be red, green, or any variation of ripeness in between.

Prizes, donated by area merchants, such as Old Country Buffet, were given out for first through fourth places, and totaled $400, $300, $200, and $100, respectively.

Other business donors included Dundee Landscape Nursery, Liberty Lanes, Diamond Jim's, Dairy Queen, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster.

Dundee Township Visitor's Center board member Bill Zelsdorf runs both a tomato- and pumpkin-growing contest each year primarily for fun, but also to highlight the Visitor's Center at 319 N. River St., as well as the weekly farmers market held on its grounds.

"It has to be fun. Otherwise, what's the point?" said Zelsdorf, who is also the new coordinator of the farmers market. "The vendors really enjoy it, and it brings attention to our market and center."

The Old Dundee Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Saturday through October and features various vendors selling locally grown produce, plants and flowers, collectibles, antiques, and jewelry.

Thomas, who has won second and third places in the contest in past years, said he doesn't really have a secret to growing larger tomatoes in his backyard -- only the second of two East Dundee homes he's lived in.

Maybe Thomas' success stems from his motivation to share his crops -- which also include cucumbers and peppers.

"I think it's just good soil, and I use Burpee seeds, which I order each year," he said. "I do raise my own plants from seed, which seems to help. It's just fun to share them with other people."

Pumpkins!

14th-Annual Pumpkin Contest

Family carves out winning streak in pumpkin contest

By Erin Sauder

For The Courier-News

Last year, Ryan Saxon of Cary won a first-place prize in the Dundee Township Visitor’s Center annual Great Pumpkin Contest. On Saturday, it was his father’s turn.

“I tried to get my son to enter again this year, but he’s 14 now so I guess he thinks he’s too cool,” Mitch Saxon said with a laugh.

He spent about four hours on his prize-winning entry, which was an intricate face carved in the pumpkin skin.

The Great Pumpkin Contest, which coincided with the end of the season for the Dundee Farmer’s Market, was held at the visitor’s center, located at 319 N. River St..

For the contest, area businesses donated more than $800 in prizes for winners in two categories: heaviest (by weight) and best decorated/carved. The top three vote-getters in each category are awarded prizes.

Bill Zelsdorf is the brainchild behind the annual contest and manager of the visitor’s center.

“It’s fun for the community and brings attention to the farmer’s market and the visitor’s center,” he said.

He started it after seeing the success of the annual Largest Tomato Contest, also sponsored by the Dundee Township Visitor’s Center and held in August.

Zelsdorf said entries for this year’s Great Pumpkin Contest were slightly down this year.

“I don’t know if the drought hurt the pumpkins,” he said.

Second- and third-place winners for the decorated/carved pumpkins were the Rudd Family and Breann Volberding, respectively.

Blake Brewer took home first prize for the largest pumpkin, with his entry weighing in at 100 pounds. Both his and Saxon’s first-place wins netted them $300 in prizes. Second place-winner was Maddie Kirmse with a 48-pound pumpkin, and Grey Hoffman with a 44-pound pumpkin.

Zelsdorf lauds the support from the local merchants for the contest.

“I don’t think anyone else in this area has $300 prizes for a pumpkin contest,” he said.

He urges the community to shop their local businesses.

“Their success means our success,” he said.

Here are our winners and also second and third prize pumpkins.