Ate my first garden tomato!

[revdorothyl]

I went out to my garden this morning to pick the few raspberries that were ready (only 2 red and 1 gold that were ripe enough to pick this time, though I'd gotten almost an actual handful when I last went out to pick on Tuesday morning) and then checked my tomato plants. [Note to self: dig out old, holey nylon stockings to tie up some floppy tomato branches.]

Yes, there were green tomatoes, both cherry-sized and full-sized, in plenty, but there was also one orange-yellow-ish cherry tomato, so -- after checking the label next to the plant to make sure this wasn't a plant whose tomatoes should turn red before they're picked -- I plucked and ate my first, delicious, sweet SunGold tomato!

I'm not thrilled with the raspberry production so far (lots and lots of foliage, though), but I've got a very good feeling about this year's tomato crop!

Comments

[goddessofbirth.livejournal.com]

There is nothing better than garden tomatoes. I grew up with them, and it completely spoiled me for store bought ones. Congratulations on your blossoming garden!

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Very cool. I don't have the patience for such things.

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

Already?! Congrats. Not even my beans have come out, sob.

[makd.livejournal.com]

MMMM! Fresh, home-grown veggies. Wonderful!!!

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

That's one of the few advantages of the mid-south climate (90 degrees and insufferably humid by mid-morning in early June is one of the many disadvantages!).

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

I have to confess that I have some patience for harvesting the food, but almost none for cultivation (I want to plant and mulch ONCE, at the very beginning, and then not have to do anything much besides keep the plants watered in dry weather and reap the rewards afterwards -- no weeding, ever, please!).

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

I'm going for low-maintenance this year, since I got almost nothing from my purple bush beans and heirloom carrots last year. I bought the tomato plants, instead of growing them from seed, and that plus a couple of Alpine strawberries in the planter out front and a single purple basil and a single purple sage plant in a pot on the deck, is all I've planted (all that's survived, anyway -- I actually bought quite a few other plants from the mail-order nursery "Grower's Exchange", but all the other herbs I bought from them died within two days of arriving or within 24 hours of being potted).

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

I grew up thinking I didn't like raw tomatoes at all, even though my Mom (who grew up on an Iowa farm) always planted a huge vegetable garden when she had space, including lots of big red tomatoes that she'd can in Mason jars for days and days come harvest time. But then in 1993 a parishioner gave me a free, tiny Cherry Sweet 100 seedling in a Dixie cup, which I transplanted into huge old pot just for the heck of it, and I discovered what "Indeterminate" means (the plant will branch and branch and produce and produce until frost kills it off) AND that home-grown cherry tomatoes can be sweet as candy, as well as fun to cook with.

From there, it was just a step to discovering heirloom tomato varieties (still remember my first "Mr. Stripey" plant with great fondness), and I became a home-grown tomato addict.

So, I came to it late, but I totally agree with you now -- the store-bought beefsteaks, Romas, and even grape tomatoes just don't measure up.