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Tomato Plant |
If you
read Kitchen Clatter with any regularity, you know of my love for Jersey
tomatoes. I love to drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle on the salt. I
love to slice them thinly and layer on bacon, lettuce and mayo. I love to sauté them
and make homemade sauce for Sunday dinner. I love everything about
them…..except planting them. I hate to garden. There is not much I like less
than working in a garden. Be it flowers or vegetables, it doesn’t matter. I
know most women enjoy this activity and I so wish that I was one of them. But
I’m not.
My
sister Betty waits impatiently all winter to be able to work in her flower
garden. The first warm spring day calls to her and she answers by being the
first in her neighborhood to hit up the local garden center for petunias and
mulch. As the season moves forward, so does her garden with flowers that are
more adaptable to summer’s heat, and she keeps pace right through the mums of autumn. I, on the
other hand, usually just buy a couple potted plants and sit them on my porch.
Betty’s passion for gardening converses with nature in a way that says “Welcome
Spring, I have been waiting much too long for you”. Mine says “hey, how you
doing?”
In the
middle of the gardening scale between my sister’s adoration and my apathy is my husband
Mike. Like me, he doesn’t put too much thought into impatiens or daffodils, but
when it comes to his vegetable garden, well, he gives Betty a run for her
money. And let me tell you, the man has a plan. He starts in March by
cultivating a small patch of land with a tiller that could turn over the lower
40 (if we had that much acreage). He then “feeds” the soil and allows it to “rest”
until early May. (There is apparently nothing in the garage that warrants the
attention that his tomato garden gets. Unfortunately)
Then before
you know it, comes that late spring Saturday morning where we go to the nursery
and pick up our green beauties to bring home and plant. Mike wanders up and
down the aisles, picking up the Romas, beefsteaks, plum and heirloom tomatoes, and intensely
determines whether they go on the cart or back on the ground. I watch this
ritual year after year and can’t honestly say what makes one plant better than
the other. But he apparently does and I won’t argue with the results. His
tomatoes are simply the sweetest I taste each summer.
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Pepper plants! |
The next
tent we enter is dubbed the “house of heat”. Mike’s eyes actually start to glaze
over at the thought of which plant will produce a sinus clearing, eye tearing,
sweat bearing, brand of pepper that will explode in a pot of chili. Jalapenos
and habaneros are for amateurs. He looks for pepper plants that come with
warning signs, like “wash your hands before touching any part of your body
after handling this pepper” Wow, a heat warning before you actually ingest it. At
least the signs seem to be targeting their audience.
After he makes his
selections, he will eventually pick up a few bell pepper plants for me. (He
makes me carry these so they are not seen with the “real” pepper plants on his
cart.) But I’m okay with that because I have a passion for Italian sausage,
pepper and onion sandwiches in the summer and I want to be able to touch
anywhere, anything, anyplace on my body without reaching for a fire extinguisher
before I cook it.
By the
end of the day, everything will have been planted and then the waiting begins.
As the weeks go on and the garden grows, I start to acquire what I call my
summer name....Someone. As in “someone should weed around the plants”, or “it
hasn’t rained in a few days, someone should water the garden”. Watering is not
bad, but weeding is right alongside gardening as things I least like to do. But
I guess someone has to do it.
Then
somewhere in the beginning of July, the magic happens are we are picking
tomatoes and peppers on a daily basis. One of our favorite summer treats is to
strain a can of string beans, cut several cherry tomatoes in half, and add to a
handful of diced Vidalia onions, a couple twirls of extra virgin olive oil, and
a sprinkle of sea salt. Easy and delicious salad!
I may
not like gardening, but I love this spring/summer ritual that goes on at our
house each year. The tomatoes still growing in September are canned and frozen
and used for sauces and soups all fall and winter. But for now, we are still in the waiting to bloom stage, and impatiently at that. I was sitting on the deck, starring at the garden when my husband opened the door and said, "If we want the garden to grow even faster, someone should fertilize it" Hmm.....
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