Oooo...Tomatoes!
A friend in Institute class surprised me with a bag of tomatoes from her garden. She had a new batch ripe, and she had already put up salsa, so she wanted to share the wealth. Red ones, little yellow pear-shaped ones. Then another friend brought me chard because she had mentioned that it was growing faster than she could keep up and I had gone, ooh, Hubby loves it--want to unload some? She also included yellow summer squash, she said she was tired of eating it for a few days, and some--you guessed it--tomatoes! Heirloom varieties, odd looking but so good. All of them, from both gardens, have been so good. It made me remember what tomatoes used to taste like, why I love them, and we have been eating them with glee. I would guess that we had about five different types from the two gardens
This is the first year that we didn't plant anything at all. Now, we have planted things that went nowhere on occasion, and without children at home to help, we haven't done very much in the past couple of years, but we have always at least had tomatoes and attempted vegetables. A few years ago, I was frustrated in thinking that I had to be the only person on earth who couldn't grow zucchini. You know, it's a stereotype that zucchini grows beyond reason for anyone until they are trying to sneak it onto porches and run away, to get rid of it. There would be flowers, but we didn't get any actual zucchini set and growing. We found out why when we planted it in front of the porch last year instead of in the side strip, so that we could automatically see the plants every day as we came in and out of the house. The squirrels ate them as soon as they started to grow anything at all. We figured out how to foil that, mostly, and had zucchini last summer, but this year with both of us being injured, we didn't grow anything.
That makes the generosity of friends very sweet. We truly love the fresh stuff, and we couldn't deal with it this summer. Money, energy, we didn't have either.
This is a small example of bearing one another's burdens that they might be lighter. What a lift to us from sharing, unforced, from the heart. And yummy to boot! Thank you, kind friends. You made life better this past week.
This is the first year that we didn't plant anything at all. Now, we have planted things that went nowhere on occasion, and without children at home to help, we haven't done very much in the past couple of years, but we have always at least had tomatoes and attempted vegetables. A few years ago, I was frustrated in thinking that I had to be the only person on earth who couldn't grow zucchini. You know, it's a stereotype that zucchini grows beyond reason for anyone until they are trying to sneak it onto porches and run away, to get rid of it. There would be flowers, but we didn't get any actual zucchini set and growing. We found out why when we planted it in front of the porch last year instead of in the side strip, so that we could automatically see the plants every day as we came in and out of the house. The squirrels ate them as soon as they started to grow anything at all. We figured out how to foil that, mostly, and had zucchini last summer, but this year with both of us being injured, we didn't grow anything.
That makes the generosity of friends very sweet. We truly love the fresh stuff, and we couldn't deal with it this summer. Money, energy, we didn't have either.
This is a small example of bearing one another's burdens that they might be lighter. What a lift to us from sharing, unforced, from the heart. And yummy to boot! Thank you, kind friends. You made life better this past week.
Oh, my! Sounds delicious! My late wife used to grow tomatoes and zucchini (that seemed to attack the house), but no more.
ReplyDeleteBetween you and Alison I'm going to be sated just reading your blogs!
I planted zucchini once--and had a gopher hole come up in the middle of the plant and the first proud zucchini disappeared down it. That's when I found out about Gopher plants, whose roots give the little critters poison ivy and they stay away.
ReplyDeleteYou have wonderful friends!