PHOTO COURTESY OF BRENCKLE’S FARMS & GREENHOUSES

If aliens landed in Mars borough and demanded the perfect summer snack, Nick Salkeld would offer them Pennsylvania-grown tomatoes sliced and sprinkled with fleur de sel.

He’d then invite them to The Great Pennsylvania Tomato Festival at Stick City Brewing Co. on Aug. 2, where from 2 to 8 p.m., they can devour more tomato dishes and drink beer blended with fresh tomato juice.

That’s one way to achieve intergalactic harmony.

Salkeld and his Earth-loving family launched the business in 2018. It was the first craft brewery in Pennsylvania to join the 1% for the Planet movement and donate at least 1% of gross sales directly to conservation-focused nonprofits.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRENCKLE’S FARMS & GREENHOUSES

Nick has many fond memories of the Great Outdoors, including the bounty from his grandparents’ garden.

“Nothing was better than those fresh, Pennsylvania-grown tomatoes, among other vegetables and fruits,” he says. “I felt that this festival was a natural way to celebrate and bring that experience to folks here at Stick City.”

Another family-run operation, Brenckle’s Farms & Greenhouses, will bring loads of produce to the fest, including different variations of the marquee fruit, from grape and cherry to yellow and green. I’m a fan of the Red Deuce, a big, fat, flavorful slicing tomato that I would happily bite into like an apple.

The Brenckles have been raising crops in Butler for more than 80 years.

Amy Brenckle says they grow about 30 varieties of tomato plants for retail, with six of those planted and harvested for their fruit. They start from seed in March and, by April, they’re transplanted to tunnel houses that allow them to fruit early and longer. They’re ready to pick by the end of June and are available through the fall. I might carve a Red Deuce for Halloween this year!

Joshua Luchesa will be a Stick City dishing out pizzas topped with goods from Brenckle’s.

Last May, after years spent working at pizzerias in his hometown of Sarver, he launched the mobile Fireside Pizza Co. The pies are baked over oak-fueled flames at a lower temperature and for longer than a traditional Neopolitan, which gives the crust a nice crunch.

In addition to his regular menu, Luchesa is planning to make a pizza featuring cherry tomatoes, garlic oil, cheese and balsamic drizzle, as well as a Caprese salad and a some sort of tomato sandwich on focaccia bread . Wash it all down with a Stick City Red Beer — Stick City’s traditional American pilsner with tomato juice made in-house — while you rock out to the band Coozie.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

A few weeks ago at Stick City, I greedily ate a 12-inch Margherita with fresh Mozzarella, basil, extra virgin olive oil, Sicilian oregano and classic tomato sauce(r) before any little, green guys had a chance to steal it.

Admittedly, I was a little depressed. During a nostalgia-fueled drive past my former elementary school in nearby Evans City, I was shocked to find that the building had been bulldozed. Thirty-five years ago, my “Star Wars”-obsessed peers and I grew Space Tomatoes in Mr. Waugaman’s classroom. It is one of my fondest childhood memories.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Perhaps that’s why, after staring at the rubble in disbelief for 10 minutes, I decided to find solace in Mars, where there’s a spaceship in the middle of town and they throw a bi-annual bash that coincides with the Red Planet’s revolution around the sun every 687 Earth days.

In 2014, longtime mayor and space enthusiast Glenn Hartung reached out to NASA to discuss possible collaborations; they’ve been as tight as E.T. and Elliott ever since.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

After some Internet sleuthing and email exchanges, I was connected to Susan Humphrey of Park Seed in Greenwood, South Carolina, who confirmed that ’80s Space Tomatoes were, indeed, a thing and not another one of my sci-fi fantasies.

In 1983, George Park Jr., then assistant vice president of the company, joined NASA’s “Get Away Special” program, an initiative that allowed individuals and groups to fly experiments on the Space Shuttle Challenger. (In another space-related incident that is forever etched upon my brain, the vessel exploded shortly after takeoff in 1986.)

It was stocked with Rutgers California Supreme tomato seeds. Well-known, hardy and popular with backyard gardeners, they were stored in aluminum canisters and Dacron bags and sent into deep space.

Space Shuttle Columbia brought them back five years later, and NASA and the United States Forest Service kept a substantial amount for scientific research. In 1990, SEEDS (Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students) kits, were sent to schools throughout the country.

The experiment showed that space seeds could germinate and grow, but not always at the same rate or with the same vigor as seeds kept on Earth. You can read all about it in the official report entitled “SEEDS: A Celebration of Science.”

“While space-grown tomatoes may have some differences in size, growth patterns and yield, the flavor feedback has been inconclusive,” Humphrey says. “Some researchers reported the tomatoes tasted better. Space-grown tomatoes had lower sugar levels, which affected the flavor, but it depends on your taste buds.”

Over the years of the collaboration, other types of seeds were sent beyond our solar system, but Space Tomatoes are the only plants I remember growing in fifth grade. The program was canceled after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. NASA has moved into a research phase that is more scientifically focused using internal efforts.

Humphrey says the seeds are no longer available from Rutgers, but there are likely derivatives available.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

OK, so you can’t get Space Tomatoes at The Great Pennsylvania Tomato Festival, but you can eat tomatoes in a cool town with cosmic vibes, and that’s good enough for this former agricultural astronaut.

“We have arguably the best local pizza creator and local farm and greenhouse family on the premises for the day bringing it all together, simply to celebrate tomatoes,” Salkeld says. “We are lucky during this time of the year in Pennsylvania. The tomatoes that are hitting the local farmers markets or gardens are simply unmatched for quality and flavor.”

Let’s hope they live long and prosper.