Dying for a tomato...

I love to hear all the successes of the forum members and learn from the trials of others.

I have been watching since February as my fellow members of the more southern climates have been planting and harvesting....

Our Spring was the 3rd coldest on record here in Kootenai County where I live.

I read as the members to the south of me are ripping out lettuces,
spinach and broccoli that have bolted, peas that have puttered out, my
only comfort to be found in their vicious battles with the bugs I am so
thankful not to have. (not happy they have bug problems, just happy I
don't as much, not taking any joy in the garden hardships of others of
course!)

I know soon, any day now, one of our beloved members is going to post a
picture of that 2 LB tomato that I will never grow here in Northern
Idaho! My mouth waters as I envision it sitting on their kitchen scale
making its forum debut.

Soon, Dixie will be posting her pics of her yummy huge Dixie Sweets, an
heirloom passed down through her family. The beautiful orange toned skin
dappled at the shoulders with the most beautiful yellow and green will
taunt me from thousands of miles away...

Josh will pipe up and show his Dixie sweet he grew from Dixie's generous
sharing of her seeds last fall, and his too will be beautiful looking
mighty juicy in his harvest basket....

Sigh...I am dying for a vine ripened, home grown tomato, and as I walk
around my garden this morning coffee cup in hand filled with the most
lovely coco coconut tea I have ever tasted, I see the teeny tiniest buds
forming on my tomatoes and I can't help but fall to my knees and beg
whoever is listening to please let my tomatoes ripen enough to harvest
before that first frost kills all my beautiful deep dark green, hand
raised from the littlest seeds, tomato vines.

All of my 12 plants are strong, healthy, beautiful and amaze me every
day...but will they give me that perfect, mouth watering, dripping down
my arm, tomato sandwich before the killing frost comes? Or will I stand
by helpless to watch as the frost kills my plants heavy with green
fruits?

Jen-dying for a tomato....and feeling a little dramatic today. LOL

A little dramatic? Wow. If we ever meet, remind me to ask you for those brownies you occasionally eat....lol.

Just kidding. It was actually a well-written, articulate post. You painted a picture, and an emotion, very well.

Nah no special brownies here....but man to I love me a dripping with juice tomato sammich.

Maybe I will go down to the farmer's market and see what tomatoes they may have there this week...who knows maybe I could find a hold-me-over tomato!

I will spare you the tales of my tomatoes so far this year, of the hundreds of red and orange cherry tomatoes, and the super-huge Cherokee Purple that I forgot to weigh before cutting. And how my romas spent themselves already, and I am planting a second, larger round of them.

And how I am battling the armyworms and flea beetles that are trying to eat my tomato plants...

Oh -- and how I accidentally and very suddenly ended our cherry tomato production by topping the plants, since they had grown through the chicken wire 5' overhead. I cut them because only the birds would have gotten those tomatoes; we wouldn't have had a chance at them! I figured that I would get more cherries from suckers. I realized only later that all of the suckers had grown through the wire, and so I had cut them all. Working on growing some more now...

Jen, I wish I could have sent you some Tulas, although it's not the same. They always taste better out of ones own garden. I'm wishing you all the toms you can eat and a late frost. I'm currently hunting down the hornworm that left some frass in my Sun Kings. I know it's in there some where.
When I find it