For the first time in over two months, my husband and I are
able to eat dinner at the kitchen table. Since March, nearly every flat surface
in the house has been completely covered in seedlings. While I devoted a fair
amount of counter space to peppers, strawberries, pumpkins, and the like, it is
really the dozen varieties of tomatoes that have taken over our house and my
life.
As an adult, I have always had a garden of some kind, but in
the past few growing seasons, things have gotten a little out of hand. After
having poor results in the little plot in the back of our yard, I moved my
entire garden to containers on our patio. Twenty giant pots yielded enough
beans, peppers, tomatoes, peas, strawberries, cucumbers, and herbs for us to
eat like kings all summer, but I still wanted more. So last fall, my
father-in-law and I installed two large raised beds and I started planning how
to expand my edible hobby.
Unlike many gardeners, I don’t garden simply for the
pleasure of making things grow, I garden because I think that most store bought
tomatoes taste like sawdust- a fact that gets me unreasonably angry. Somehow
humankind has perfected methods of farming that bring about incredible yields,
disease resistant crops, and vegetables that are so beautiful that they are
practically art, but somehow we forgot the most important thing about food: the
taste. After a summer of eating garden fresh tomatoes, that first bland grocery
store tomato of the winter makes me want to weep.
I have found utter disappointment with what is available in
the produce section at a reasonable price is a wonderful motivator. After one
too many mealy grocery store tomatoes, I vowed to give myself the flavor that
commercial farmers were not able to provide. I went in search of the perfect
tomato. As such, I spent hours
researching seed varieties all winter with plans to enjoy an abundant harvest
of flavorful fruits and veggies this summer. While the internet is a wealth of
knowledge and the best place to find rare or unique seeds, there is really
nothing like a good book for gardening tips and inspiration.
While I found several helpful titles, like “The Beginner's
Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables” by Marie Iannotti and “Carrots Love
Tomatoes” by Loise Riotte, the best book I came across is “Epic Tomatoes” by
Craig LeHoullier. This book got me downright excited to get some dirt under my
fingernails. “Epic Tomatoes” covers everything from the history of tomato
varieties to how to deal with commons pests, not to mention the absolutely mouthwatering
images.
After reading about Cherokee Purples, Mortgage Lifters, and
Sun Golds, I ordered my seeds in late February and rushed into work to share my
tomato hopes, dreams, and fears with my coworker and fellow overzealous
gardener, Irene. She and I routinely encourage each other to take things to
excess, so it wasn’t long before she also came in excitedly sharing news of the
dozen varieties she selected for her garden this summer.
Over the next several weeks, Irene and I discussed starter
soil, grow lamp height, and germination rates and my husband and I ate dinner
with our plates in our laps sitting on the living room couch. By mid April,
with our makeshift kitchen greenhouse taking up so much living space, I was
getting antsy to move my growing brood outside.
Now that the weather has warmed and my little seedlings have
graduated to outdoor living, I find myself missing the soft glow coming from
the grow lamps in the kitchen and worry about all of the harm that could befall
my cute little fruits and veggies in the wilds of my garden. I am officially a
produce empty nester, and there is no book that covers how to cope with
separation anxiety when it comes to plants, but with a little luck and a lot of
sunny days, I’ll be checking out “Canning for a new generation” by Liana
Krissoff and “Canning & preserving for beginners” in just a few short
weeks.
