September 7, 2006

• In case you were interested

  I have harvested my tomatoes.  There are still some that are
  unripe, but most of them have been plucked into my happy little hands.

  I think, given the powers of technology, it would be interesting to
  show the progression of my little tomato plants since I started taking
  pictures in May.

  I don’t remember when I actually planted the seeds, but I’m guessing it
  was sometime around the end of April/ early May.  When it was warm
  enough, I took them outside for good.

  May 22, 2006

  

  They
  were so little and gentle back then.  The three little pots are
  tomatoes.  The two big ones in the back are my herbs.

  ---

  July 1, 2006

  
  
  Eventually, they got big.  Quite big.  One of those
  little pots, soon grew to become several large plants.  I had to
  remove it from the pot and put them into a large…thing.  This is
  the Alfonse Family, named after my buddy Alfonse.

  

  Betsy and Optimus Prime also needed to be repotted.  They weren’t
  nearly as plentiful as Alfonse, but they were still good. 

  ---

  Then, they exploded.

  July 16, 2006 

  

  16 days later, my basil blew up.  So did the tomato plants, as you
  can see.  This was truly a pleasant surprise when I came home from
  my road trip with the family.

  ---

  August 20, 2006 

  

  A
  month later, and they are nearly out of control.  I suspect that
  the only thing that kept them from getting bigger was the fact that
  they outgrew their pots.  There wasn’t enough soil to keep all the
  roots in.  I actually saw more roots and soil on the surface of
  the pot.  I think if I had planted them in the ground, they would
  have been even more fruitful.  But, alas, I have no yard.
   Only my poor little porch.  Betsy and Alfonse are the cherry
  tomato plants.  The two big red ones on the left are from Optimus
  Prime.  They’re not cherry tomatoes.  Way back in the day, I
  wondered out loud what I should do with my first fruits.  Someome
  suggested that I roast them and give them to the priests.
   Well, I didn’t roast them, but my first fruits went to the
  priests… and their kids.  And that was pretty much the end of
  Optimus Prime.

  

  They’re literally spilling over! Amazing!

  ---

  September 7, 2006

  

  Well,
  they’ve been ripe for weeks now.  So ripe, that they have in fact
  begun to split open.  Some of them have gone bad…. It is quite
  unfortunate.  But the thing is, I’ve been waiting for good light
  so I could take a picture of them.  However, it’s been so cloudy
  every day that I never got the light that I needed.  Today was
  actually the first day when we had sun.  Unfortunately, the sun
  sets on the other side of my house (all the other pictures I took were
  in the morning).  So, here are the pictures what they looked like
  right before the harvest.

  

  Another shot.  In bad lighting.  Using only my flash.  Boooooo.
  Remember that the plant on the right is Alfonse.  Betsy is in the pot on the left.

  

  Same shot, just lower.

  However, I was able to find a teensy corner of good light.  I had to walk around the block to find it.  But I got it.
  

  My babies.  Not even photoshopped.  That’s what good lighting will do for you.

  

  Viewed another way.  This is photoshopped.  I did not slip
  into an alternate black and white dimension where only the power of
  tomatoes reigned supreme.

  I’m not quite sure what I should do with these babies, but Chris suggested that I try Bruschetta.  And I think I know just the recipe to use.  If you’ve read this far, thanks.

  And I guess that’s all I have to say about that.

  El Fin

  
  

  • 8:26 pm
  • 13 Comments