Monday, August 03, 2009

A Tomato Story

We are one of the zillion families trying to grow some of our own food this year. But with a dog that destroys our backyard, the tough Central Oregon climate, and a baby in the belly, we decided to start small. My Mother's Day gift was the supplies for a small tomato and herb garden on the front porch. It started with meager beginnings...

But with sporadic watering (with my pint-sized helper), blazing sun, and the addition of some filler flowers, things started to take shape.

It's been a challenge to keep Owen from eating the green tomatoes, but he now points to them and says, "Not yet. No red tomato." But last week, we got our glimpse of red...okay, the tomatoes are still orange, but close enough.

My pint-sized helper got to be the first taster. Considering his rejection of most foods this days, I had no idea how it would go over, but it turns out this kid LOVES home grown tomatoes... who doesn't?

Success!We also started getting tomatoes in our weekly produce box, and Owen ate them faster than I could slice them in half. I told Jim and Jessi that my non-eater loved their tomatoes and they promised extras in our box this week. =)

So far, we've only been tasting the cherry tomatoes (and all the basil, parsley, sage, and cilantro we need), but I've got my eye on this growing Early Girl to put in BLTs or caprese salad... Yum!

Happy Eating!

6 comments:

Peg said...

Oh....I boy after my own heart! :)
"Two things money can't buy - true love and home-grown tomatoes!" - I don't know who said this, but it is one of my favorite quotes.
I harvested the first off my vines just the other day!

Colleen said...

Nice! Ours are there, they are just nice and green. I may have to pull out a recipe for fried green tomatoes! Zach's always been a big tomato fan too. It's nice to know that ONE healthy food is a favorite!

Alissa Maxwell said...

We ate that big one last night for dinner (with basil, blue-cheese, and bacon for gourmet BLTs), and it was AWESOME! Now I just have to wait for another one to ripen.

Spencer said...

Funny! I was thinking about posting a tomato blog too! Our tomtoms seem to have the same schedule as yours... they've just started changing colors. We can't wait until they are ripe. If we have extras, I'll try to save some for Owen when you guys come up to visit! :-)

Phyllis said...

We have SO MANY homegrown tomatoes right now. Jaan says that they are the best in the world. I wish I could send you some! We're loving them. Asya is learning her colors from them. I think she picked her weight in green tomatoes before it finally started making sense to her. :-)

Cailean said...

It's hard to find a more exciting moment than when you discover your long-awaited tomatoes have finally started to turn red!!!