The Minnesota Farm Woman

My tomatoes have all been planted, and there is no room in the garden for any more.  I started out with ten plants of various varieties, all grown with tender loving care by my friends Dawn and Dale. “Ten will be plenty,” I told Dawn as I admired them. “Ten will be just right!” Ten WAS just right, until I stopped at a local plant nursery to check our their flowers.  I don’t know how I ended up in the tomato section. It kind of just sucked me in.  They had a new variety to this area called Polebig. Four to a pack. On sale. They practically followed me home, and I managed to squeeze them in between the pumpkins and the broccoli.  Fifteen will be just right.  If you think I am not counting right, I did say fifteen. You see, I have grown a Yellow Pear tomato every year for the last 20 or so years, so I must have one.  Yellow Pear tomatoes grow anywhere, are very prolific, have a sweet taste with a tomatoey tartness and I think of them as garden candy.  They are meant to be picked and snacked on while you walk through the garden admiring everything else. As I visited another plant nursery in my search for the somewhat elusive Yellow Pear, I couldn’t help check out all the others.  I ran into my favorite paste tomato, the Roma. I have tried other paste tomatoes, but the good old-fashioned Roma does best for me.  Dawn had given me two, but I was a little worried. Were two enough for all the sauce I plan to make? Was I sure? What about salsa? They came four to a pack. On sale. I managed to find a little space for them in the garden, right next to the zucchini.  I bought the Yellow Pear, too. Nineteen plants. NINETEEN. Oh, my. I guess tomatoes are like chickens:  One can never have too many because there are just so many varieties to choose from.  Tomatoes can be heirloom or hybrid, determinate or indeterminate. They come in red, pink, purple, black, yellow, orange, green and white. I almost forgot striped! Yes, there are striped tomatoes, too. The Mr. Stripey variety is one of my favorites.  They all are, can’t you tell?  There are  hundreds of varieties and just as many arguments as to which one tastes the best. I am here today to put it all to rest. The best tasting tomato is the one you grew yourself and is the first one of the season. Whether you eat it standing in the garden with the juice dripping down your chin or sliced thickly inside a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, that first tomato is always the best.  Some people wonder what heaven will be like when we get there. I don’t even pretend to be an expert on heaven, but I can tell you one thing for sure: There will  be tomatoes. There has to be, because for those of us who love them, fresh garden tomatoes have always given us that little taste of heaven.