An Eventful Day

Today at our house there were two events of note: there was no rain and we finally harvested our first ripe tomato.

Readers not from the Central Jersey area should understand that usually local gardeners vie for the first tomatoes of the season around July Fourth. Someone will proudly present The Ripe Tomato at an Independence Day picnic while tossing off the comment, "Well, I just picked this from the garden as we were leaving. I figured you might want to slice it on some of the burgers."

Of course, at this point the other gardeners are supposed to admire The Tomato (no matter how grudgingly) before it is sliced.

But this year, with all the cool wet weather, the tomatoes are really late - if they exist at all.

So I am proud to announce that today we picked one ripe Sweet One Hundred Cherry tomato (about one-inch across), cut it in half, and savored it.

As for the weather report, suffice it to say that in order to get to the tomato plants I have put down extra compost along the vegetable garden paths so I don't sink into or slip on the mud.

The Tomatoes of Autumn

In all the decades of Central Jersey vegetable gardens I have known, there have always been tomato plants and part of the tomato tradition was the neighborly contest to produce the first tomato of the season - preferably before July 4th.

But I can never remember a last tomato of the season competition. It seems as though, in years past, by mid-September gardeners were trying to save a final few green tomatoes before ripping out the plants, but now I find myself brushing aside the fallen leaves of autumn to uncover ripe tomatoes for salads and sandwiches.

We consider this a positive event - but odd.

On the other hand, I also don't remember cutting the lawn as one of the jobs to be done while preparing for Thanksgiving guests.

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I'll know that this has become a common phenomena when seed catalogues offer such tomato names as "Late Girl" or "Autumn Red" or "Halloween Special."

Survivor: The Tomato Tale Continues

When we last saw the half-flat of tomato plants, they were settling into their new homes scattered throughout the yard – except for a few that had migrated to my mother-in-law’s yard.

Within 48-hours of their starting to put down roots they were visited by the neighborhood welcome wagon – doe-a-deer and her twin fawns and numerous rabbits large and small.

The plants in the fenced garden and the patio plants remained untouched, but the four next to the pots were each left with a stalk sticking up and one pair of leaves. The three on the far side of the house had their tops cleanly clipped off.

Some welcome!

It appears that all the plants have survived their premature pruning.

Meanwhile I have noticed that friends’ plants are setting fruit already. In a state whose gardeners pride themselves on having the first red, ripe, edible, garden-grown Jersey tomato preferably by July 4th…well, this is not a good thing.

Trying to remain an incurable optimist, I will continue to read the all-tomato cookbook and will remain uncharacteristically silent when other gardeners brag about their tomatoes.

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"...But deer sometimes do get a penchant for eating tomato plants, especially the new growth, and can cause extensive damage..." - Lawrence Davis-Hollander, "The Tomato Festival Cookbook", P. 48.