I was startled Tuesday to see some pretty impressive looking local tomatoes on sale at the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market behind St John’s Episcopal Church. Mind you, we expect to see ripe red tomatoes in August, but not the first week of July.

“How did you do it?” was the question on everyone’s lips as people gathered around the exhibit table of the Fort Hill Farm in New Milford that was also selling lettuce, beets, onions, and other early crops. “We built a greenhouse and put the tomato plants right out there a month earlier than they would normally have been set in the ground. They ripened beautifully,” the farmer said.

Another surprise at Tuesday’s farm market was a new local vendor showing off her bean sprouts. Stacy Horrigan of Elysium Ecofarms in Sandy Hook must have had ten different varieties of sprouts on display including broccoli rabe, dwarf gray sugar pea, and China rose radish. She grows them in her refrigerator and warned us the “Chinese rose radishes will really clean out your sinuses.” Whatever happened to plain old bean sprouts? Never a dull moment at the organic farmers’ market. We’ve come a long way from what the Indians used to grow –– beans, corn, and squash.

Newtown’s own John McMahon and his daughter Sarah will be performing in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair at Richter Park in Danbury July 8 through July 24. (Check out musicalosatrichter.org for more information.) This is Sarah’s fourth show at Richter and she sings and dances in the chorus. John is a carnival barker and is also in the chorus. He notes that, in his 15 years with Richter, he has been on stage for 14 musicals and built 20 sets and also rebuilt the stage.

Also, all three Petrovitch kids — Stephen, Nick, and Madalyn — are in this production as well. Stephen and Nick were also in Richter’s recent season opener, Hello Dolly. The boys have been very active in Richter and Newtown High School productions in recent years, and were also in a Ridgefield Theater Barn’s It’s A Wonderful Life together in December 2002, among numerous other productions. This is the first time that all three of them will be appearing together in the same production.

Congratulations to Mike Curler and Jill Hansen, who were married last Sunday. It was a beautiful day and everything went off without a hitch — almost. While their guests headed off to the reception at the home of Mike’s sister, Linda DeLuca, the newlyweds had their limousine stop at the Ram Pasture so they could get a few more photos take in the park setting. Unfortunately, the limo broke down at the Ram Pasture, and an emergency call had to go out to Linda, who rescued the stranded couple.

Jane Sharpe, program chairman for the Chamber of Commerce, was explaining to Jack Rosenthal, who staffs the Chamber office, that she was busy “because we had a baby.” Jack, always the gentleman, said he’d never noticed that she was pregnant. “Oh no, not me,” said Jane, “our son Marcus and his wife Jennifer had a baby boy.” Jack said he understood about these mix-ups. He says he is 48 years old and has trouble explaining how that can be when he has several grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

The Sharpe’s baby’s name is Jackson Donald Sharpe, named after Jane’s husband, Don.

I saw Town Hall South custodian Dennis Kean putting some elbow grease into cleaning the front windows at the police station this week. Those windows are so clean now, the police should hope that birds don’t try to fly through them.

The folks in the public school system offices at Canaan House at Fairfield Hills were smiling like Cheshire cats this week. They have regained their broad paved parking area/driveway along the west side of the building. Last December, more than 4,500 gallons of heating fuel leaked out of an outdoor fuel tank, thoroughly contaminating the area. Workmen then dug up the parking area/driveway to root out contaminated soil. Last April, an externally based heating system caught fire, causing extensive damage and disrupting the parking area/driveway. Last week, workers finally paved the area, creating a hard, smooth surface in a place that had been uneven for the past seven months. What a great place to go skateboarding!

Speaking of thrills in motion, at the recent St Rose of Lima carnival 10-year-old Roland Stephen, son of Charles and Esther Stephen, went on the Rip Cord a record 30 times. The Rip Cord is a true “tower of terror,” hurtling riders down scores of feet before springing them back up again. He told his grandparents, Charles, Sr, and Charlotte Stephen, that he planned to go on it a few more times before the carnival ended.

Well this thrill-ride-of-a-column has come to rest once again, but we’ll be soaring here again next week, so be sure to…

Read me again.