Skip to main content

Intruder Tomatoes

I am no gardener, and I make no apologies for that. I don't perform surgery, drive a semi, put out fires or fly to the moon, either. We've all got our roles to play. I did plant some herbs this summer, though. I planted sage, oregano, flat-leaf parsley, curly-leaf parsley, rosemary and lavender—one each—and then I walked away. I can dig the hole and stick in the herb, but I've never been good about tending the thing as it grows. You should see the oregano I planted a few years ago. It has become so unruly and completely choked out the chives, and the sprawling thyme right next to it is big enough to be home to a family of opossums.

A few weeks ago, I went out in the yard to snip some parsley for dinner and was stunned by the size of the things I had planted. And then I found an intruder—this thing:

At first I thought I had your typical weed. We've got plenty of weeds all over the place. But then I lifted up one of the long vines extending from the root and discovered I was growing cherry tomatoes, loads of them. Did you know they grow wild? It turns out three of my neighbors have gardens, real ones with vegetables, and seeds from their planting must have blown in the wind and landed next to my overgrown parsley.

So, now I know what it's like to step out your back door and pluck something edible and fresh from a vine, something larger than a sprinkling of green leaves, to take it back into the kitchen and serve it with dinner. It's self-sufficient. It's free. And best of all, it took absolutely no effort on my part to make it happen. So much easier than flying to the moon.

I'm still no gardener and have no intention of becoming one, but I like the idea of finding food in the yard.

Comments

lol what a great find! As you say, no work put in either. Cherry tomatoes are so delicious. I'd quite like to grow these myself.

Laughed, by the way, at your intro, saying you drove a semi. I don't know what you meant, but in England you'd be driving a semi detached house!
Just caught up with the last article on age. lol. Sorry haven't been around much, not been a great time really but I do love your writing. I've commented. :)
dive said…
One of the weirder places to find tomatoes growing is all along the middle of the rail tracks on my commute.
People … er … well let's just say the seeds pass through people unscathed and get flushed out onto the tracks. Wherever lots of tracks come together you can see them growing rampantly.
Yay, tomatoes! The great survivors.
Scout said…
Lynn, here a semi is a big commercial truck. A semi detached house? detached from what?

Dive, that's just nasty. Is that why you all eat tomatoes with breakfast? Because of surplus? I'll never eat a tomato in England again.
Good God alive, Scout, I don't think I'll eat one here either! What exactly are you saying there, Dive? I can't believe what I think you're saying. Please say you're not.

Oh so it's a truck, thanks! Detached from what? he he. Ok a detached house is one which stands alone from other houses - space around it. Detached from anything, I suppose. Semi detached has another house joined to it at one side (so it's half detached; see?) Terraced has houses joined on either side. :)

Popular posts from this blog

Right Brain Dominant

I am reading A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future , by Daniel H. Pink. I wouldn't have chosen this book had I been book hunting because I lean toward fiction—it was a gift from someone who, like me, is right-brain dominate. I haven't gotten very far, just far enough to learn that in Hippocrates' day, the left side of the brain was considered the true source of thought, the thing that separated us from the animals and made us human. It was the source of reason and logic. The right side was considered a useless left over, a parasite. Now we know that both sides of our brains are equally important and equally involved in our daily thoughts and functions. But some of us do seem to be governed by one side more strongly than the other. Me, sometimes I think the left side of my brain has completely atrophied, that the right side governs everything. But I am learning that I don't give that other side enough credit, that logical mathy side. As I read on ab...

Ish People

Tell an Ish person to show up around 9 a.m., and you'll see them somewhere around 9 a.m. Tell them to show up at 9ish, and you'll see them anywhere from 9:05 to 9:20. You have given them license to dilly dally, and who wouldn't take advantage of that? The other night at the big shindig dinner party, one of the drummers said the rehearsal the next morning would begin at 9ish. "I am an ish person," he says. Immediately the clanker goes off in my head--oh, good, I thought. I can deliver my daughter a little late. No Ish person is early, so if you say 9ish, that does not mean give or take 5, 10, 15 minutes. It's exclusively a taking phrase. Take an extra 10 minutes to drink your cup of coffee. We won't mind. We're Ish people. Sunday's rehearsal started at 2:00. Because it was conducted by the same people who conducted the Saturday rehearsal, my understanding was 2-ISH. My daughter is worse than I am about taking liberties with Ish time frames, so she d...

Everybody Needs A Little Crème Brûlée

I went out to dinner with some friends the other evening and ordered crème brûlée for dessert. It was lovely—crispy sugar crust and creamy custard underneath. I'm a bit of crème brûlée fan and order it more often than I order any other restaurant dessert, which is not to say I always order dessert—only now and then. On my way home, I remembered I had a crème brûlée kit at home with ramekins, a torch, and a basic recipe. I love the torch. So, now I have made my favorite dessert at home, and I recommend that everyone have crème brûlée. It makes the world better. I used the recipe on the box, which was simple and basic. My only suggestion for improvement is to use less sugar for the caramelized crust. It was so thick, it was like chipping away at glass. An ice pick would have come in handy, or a diamond. Other recipes suggest 1/4 cup to be divided among six ramekins, making just over 1 tablespoon per serving. Crème Brûlée serves 4 1 cup heavy cream 2 extra large egg yolks (I used 3 re...