What are you waiting for?

Can we get a tomato? Can we? Is it too much to ask for just one ripe tomato? Our entire tomato patch is laden with lovely green tomatoes, all holding their breath for some unknown reason and then on the count of three they are going to jump out from behind their leaves, yell "SUPRISE" and we will have 13 tons, literally, of ripe tomatoes. People are screaming for tomatoes. For the past two weeks I have had the audacity to HOPE that we would have tomatoes ready for CSA pick up. After pickup the emails begin "um, I didn't get any tomatoes". "Okay, okay, sorry" I reply. I was HOPING that we would have ripe tomatoes, but they did not oblige this week. I shake my head in wonder.

It gives me the same feeling in my head as when I let the horses into their stalls for evening feed and the first thing they do is urinate. Waiting to come into their stalls, they shift their weight from side to side, cross their legs, dance around a little, act edgy and overall, act as if they have been travelling in a car for 7 hours and REALLY need to use the restroom, but there is a line. The line is me. I am too slow for them. They have been holding it for many, many hours and they are tired of waiting. Once they get into their stalls they sigh with relief and let loose with what must be 35 gallons of fluid. It just doesn't make sense.

So, back to tomatoes. The standard sequence of events would be that the tomatoes at the bottom of the plant would begin ripening, then as we harvest, the next layer up the plant would ripen. If you look closely at the picture, you can see there are blossoms on the top of the plant, so it is still making more tomatoes. Historically, the tomato will still grow until late into the season, making blossoms and tomatoes until first frost.

Yesterday we began on Twitter, so you can check us out: Homesteadmd

Editorial notes: For anyone who read "Birth of a Farm" you will notice a TON of spelling errors. The entire post was written on my Blackberry while waiting in line the day I created the blog. Being new to blogging I can't figure out how to edit it, so you'll have to suffer with the spelling mistakes!