Looking forward to some home-grown tomatoes . . . and then . . .

I kinda, sorta got back into gardening a couple of years ago.  When I first moved to Covington, my little town, here in the Alleghany Highlands, it was clear that growing a garden was what you were supposed to do.  So I did for several years--tomatoes, peppers, beans, the usual stuff.  Even grew corn a few times, and for a while I fed strawberries to the birds, who really seemed to enjoy them.  I didn't like it--the work I mean; I liked the eats just fine--and with the bountifulness of others' gardens and the kindness of neighbors and church members I found I was well supplied with juicy red ones, and other produce, even after I hung up my hoe.  

Then my dad move here.  He had a desire to garden but no spot to do so.  I had a nice piece of ground.  It was a great deal.  Dad bought a tiller so he could grow more than he and mom could eat.  I was glad to help eliminate the surplus.  More than twenty-five years ago my dad left us, as did a lot of those other generous, productive gardeners.  

Store bought tomatoes just don't cut it.

 

Guy Clark - Homegrown Tomatoes

It was my wife's fault, really. She bought a rasberry bush at a yard sale.  I needed to make a place to plant it, and as things often do, one thing led to another.  It's pretty pitiful by real garden standards--a tiny patch and a couple of raised beds, but I noticed this morning that one of my plants, late-planted though it was, has some dime-sized green tomatoes on it.  "The substance of things hoped for."  

Tomato season is way too short, though.  Some of the remnants of last years vines still litter the ground.  Soon this year's will join their older cousins on their journey back to the dirt.  Kind of like us.  Except for us there is more beyond.  Though thinking of a big juicy beefsteak is a pleasant contemplation, my something that I'm thinking about isn't a vegetable, it's heaven.  When tomatoes are done they just go "squish."  God made us for eternity.  Where will you be?

  

It's STTA