HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?



This spring we planted a garden. Twice a year our church plows under the community garden area and splits it up into rows for anyone who wishes to garden. We've done so before but this time it was with the intent of sharing the joy of growing with our 2 year old and 4 year old; Good ages to be transfixed by seeds and blossoms and fruit!
But we only had half of our veggies even grow to maturity. Our carrots never even showed their fuzzy heads and our squash never got bigger than a...well something too small to think of.
We have snow peas but didn't stake them so they don't produce too many (that is really ok - we had just enough to enjoy). And we have tomatoes..lots and lots of tomatoes! We have been enjoying them very much. Just enough of them are ripe at the same time to get to eat them without watching them go bad. And the kids actually tried the tomatoes since they participated with us in planting them. But how many kids really like tomatoes anyway. I was proud of them for trying.
Three nights ago at 9:36pm the phone rang. It startled me. No one but family calls that late at night (hey, my kids are in bed by 8 so 9:30 is late for me).
I raced to the phone. Someone from our church?

"Hello?"
"Yes hi Robyn - I just wanted to know if you guys were planning on picking the tomatoes from your garden any time soon?"
"uhhh..."
"Well it's just that so many of them are ready - in fact I picked a few to take with me cause they were so ready. I hope you don't mind."
"No, we really have plenty tomatoes to go around. I guess will be out there tomorrow to pick some since they are ready. Thanks for letting me know."

Ok - weird right? Someone is keeping an eye on our garden for us? That's not too surprising since it is a community garden. But did they have to call at 9:30 to tell me about my tomatoes? I figured there must be a bushel of them ready to eat. So, dutifully I went the next evening to pick at our crop. This is what I found:



I don't know about you but I like my tomatoes orange or just turning red before I pick them so that they ripen nicely and taste the best. Needless to say I was frustrated. I picked 4 nearly orange fruits to show my husband how "ready" they were and to laugh about it together. They ripened nicely and await my next turkey sandwich.
After my breakfast this morning I began my laundry chore. My SIL informed me "There's someone at the door." Oh brother. Last night someone stopped by to sell me a "free" carwash. And the Bible thumpers (their intentions are good) are regulars in this neighborhood.
But no! It was a visitor from my church.
"Good morning!" I attempted my friendliest as I noticed she was bringing me sunflowers and three grocery bags full of...something.
"I brought you your tomatoes!"
WTF?!
"Oh..."
"We picked them all for you this morning."
I peer into the bags.



No surprise. They are all green and yellow. My insides seething I also began to realize that the beautiful sunflowers she had for me were in fact FROM MY GARDEN as well!
"Thank you" I said. "I was going to pick them on Sunday to give them more time to ripen up."
"Well, when they turn red the bugs get them."
"ok, I guess I can set them out on my porch. Thank you."
I think I growled as I shut the door of my house. And then the movie Fried Green Tomatoes popped into my mind. "Maybe that's what we'll have for dinner," I sarcastically thought to myself. "And I can serve GROUND HUMAN STEAK to go with them!"
(for those of you who haven't seen the movie - there is a little resteraunt famous for their fried green tomatoes - a murder is committed and the body is ground up into steaks and served to the murder investigators who have come to town looking for the killer)