I was standing in the garden early this morning pretty pleased with how well the tomatoes are doing with their lack of protection early on – they were only covered for a few hours before the dog – Pip – decided the covers were awesome chew toys and they had to tough it without covers from then on. Briefly, the thought of having 16 thriving tomato plants evoked the same “what am I going to do with all of this” feeling that a zucchini plant is famous for. But it was fleeting… these are tomatoes and between fresh and frozen there will be no problem with finding a home for all of them. Plus, they’re not here yet.
It did make me think of a bigger question though – what happens to all of the tomato plants that are sold on just about every corner during the late spring? At last count, I saw plants for sale at drug stores, grocery stores, the large chain stores, the local farm store, hardware/lumber stores, weekend flower fundraisers, the farmers market, and Craigslist – and that’s not accounting for the seed catalogs and heirloom varieties started and maintained personally by gardeners. Care to fathom a guess how many tomato plants are sold each year? I have no clue, but it’s got to be a lot. Where do they go? Yeah, a few of them will be killed off but there aren’t that many black thumbs out there, are there? The state of Iowa should be swimming in tomatoes come September each year. Any ideas?
Swimming In Tomatoes?
