Friday, October 24, 2008

Tomatoes in October...almost November? Why yes, in Texas, of course!

Well, the saga of the tomato plants continues. I don't know that it's really a saga, per se, but a strange tale to be sure.

A long time ago in a backyard far away from most of our readers...a hopeful family purchased 3 tomato plant containers (each with 6 plants...in hindsight said family would think they should've just gotten larger plants and only one of each type...you know what they say about hindsight...anyway...). This hopeful family also purchased some lovely soil and planned to try growing 3 different types of tomatoes...in buckets...on the back porch...because they didn't want to dig holes in the yard (it's a rental house....).

Anyway...buckets were filled with soil and plants were gently planted and watered. The watering went on for awhile and then slowly tapered off as the plants were forgotten during busy times for the family.

What happened, you ask, to the other 5 plants of each type? Well, the lady of the family couldn't bear to just toss them out and didn't have any more large buckets so she dug holes in the yard after all...gasp...and planted them in the back corner of the yard to see what would happen with them. They were watered once, maybe twice.

Months went by and nary a tomato was ever seen on the tomatoes in the buckets. Recently, however, the family noticed that the tomato plants that were just planted out of a sense of guilt over tossing them, had grown....a lot...and upon closer inspection they found that there were tomatoes growing on the plants...quite a few tomatoes....amazing!

These plants that had been left to themselves and whatever rain the Lord chose to bless them with were healthier and hardier than the bucket tomatoes. Interesting.

Today, Miss E, the eldest child of the family and the lady of the family headed back to check on the tomato plants on a whim and what do you think they found?

Well....this.....



and....



these!



They had to pick the green one since the limb of the tomato plant that it was on had been broken in a recent rainstorm and it wouldn't last long before rotting - maybe it'll ripen up, they thought...or perhaps they'll try fried green tomatoes....perhaps...

So...you just never know what's going to happen, do you?

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