First!
Loyal blog reader Dennis sent me this picture of his first ripe tomato of the season. Here’s his comment: “I just sent this pic to some of my family, telling them ‘this is being sent to you w/ the sole intent of making you jealous!’ Picked today, June 28, 2008, is this delicious looking tomato, a supersonic this is the first tomato to ripen from any of our 14 plants.”
I like the way Dennis notes the month, day and year almost with the precision of a new father reporting the birth of his first child. I’m surprised that Dennis didn’t include a weight in there somewhere. Ha!
I have to tease him, but I’m quite familiar with that sense of pride. It was with much excitement this weekend that I discovered tiny green fruits on all four of my tomato plants, which are the first ones I’ve ever grown on my own. Until I saw those tiny gems hidden in the foliage, I wasn’t quite sure that I could make it work. I guess I’d better not count my tomatoes before they’re ripe, though.
All of this reminds me of my grandfather’s rivalry with my dad over who would produce the first ripe tomato of the season. One time, Paw-paw bought a fire-engine red plastic tomato and wired it onto one of his plants just to tease my Dad. Until Dad realized it was fake, he was practically crippled with jealousy.
Ahhh, good times in the country.
June 30, 2008 - 10:16 AM
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Great job! I am in envy of your gardening skills. (we are not worthy, we are not worthy).
It’s beautiful!!! I am getting some zucchini – they are round Eight Ball Zucchini and the flowers are still stuck on top of the vegetable part so right now they look like little trolls!
Yay for Dennis! I am expecting my first ripe tomato by the end of this week although it is only a cherry tomato. Somehow that seems like cheating since it is small but I will savor that tiny little bite!
My mother was most proud of her green thumb, particularly when it came to tomatoes. She did everything but alert the media when she had tomatoes on the vine before June 1 and, Indiana weather permitting, had ripe tomatoes before the Fourth of July more years than not.
And they were some very tasty tomatoes, as I recall.
Congratulations to Dennis!
We have several green tomatoes on our grape tomato plants. I was inspecting them yesterday and noticed that 2 tomatoes have an orange-ish tinge on the tops!! These are our first attempts at growing any vegetable, and so far so good. But as Lindsey said, better not count just yet. I will try to remember to send a photo.
BTW, we got our plants from Woods Farms on the market. As mentioned, they are grape tomatoes. I have to say, these are the biggest grape tomatoes I’ve ever seen!
My dad is in the end stages of Alzheimer’s and will not be around much longer. When I saw this post, I had to send in this story my daughter sent me today. She just started taking a creative writing class and is writng this about her grandpa. She’s not kidding either. He grew enough tomatoes to feed the neighborhood, and would pick them and the ones he didn’t give away, were kept in small cardboard boxes on the dining room table. We could eat them, but they were to be treated with the utmost respect.
I have an essay in mind about my grandpa. Something along the lines of “minding your tomatoes” as a life lesson/metaphor to put your all into your passion. My grandpa was a tomato man
. Those tomatoes lived on every surface of the dining room-we were not allowed to touch them and they weren’t even allowed to touch each other. That man was a touch away from swaddling them in blankets 
. But he prided himself on growing a good mater and boy, he put his energy into making sure he did it right. And he derived such enormous joy from a vegetable well-done. We should all take what gives us joy and put that kind of love, hard work and energy into it. That, among many things, is what I learned from him.