Tonight, my boys and I will do something we’ve wanted to do since we first headed out to our garden plot in May, armed with seedlings, tools ... and the realization that we had almost no idea what we were doing.
We’re going to eat tomatoes that we grew, our very selves.
They are beautiful tomatoes, if I do say so myself ... bright red, perfectly formed, looking rather like something out of a seed catalog. For the first time in his life, my 4-year-old is eager to eat a vegetable. I’ve had to restrain him from picking them up off the kitchen counter and taking a big ‘ol bite.
For my part, I just keep admiring them. We grew tomatoes. We actually grew tomatoes. Just ... wow.
We chose not to put these particular ones into a recipe. (There are more where they came from; these are just the first to be ripe.) They’re simply going to be sliced up, sprinkled with a tiny bit of salt, and savored. Just the way I like them.
It seems fitting.
I’ve learned a lot over the past four months. In fact, I’m still learning. (Some of our tomatoes are falling prey to what I’ve discovered is blossom end rot, and I’m studying on ways to avoid that in the future. Calcium, apparently, since we’ve been watering regularly. If you have any advice, let me know!).
But the most important things I’ve learned are that:
• Even I can do this. And if I can do it, you can do it.
• Planting a garden is a great thing to do with your kids, for so many reasons ... from an increased interest in actual veggies to a deeper respect for the Earth to a fantastic way to teach responsibility.
• Everything tastes better if you grew it yourself.
This will be the last Clueless Gardener column this year. I hope that there will be a second edition next spring, with new adventures and experiments and goofs and hopefully a lot of further gardening education for the Keppeler family, but this seems like a good place to bid farewell until then. One can only wax eloquent on the joys of fresh tomatoes (and peppers, and lettuce, and basil) so much.
Thanks very much to the folks at Knox United Presbyterian Church, especially Debbie Rife, for their community garden, where we rented our plot. Writing about their endeavor was the push I needed to finally make the gardening jump for myself. Everyone involved was so kind and encouraging, and we truly appreciate that.
I want to extend further thanks to everyone who wrote in to encourage me and offer advice in this endeavor. You convinced me that I could do it, even when I figured this great experiment would go the way of every other plant I’ve attempt to sustain (that is to say, dead). And your kudos to the boys for their part was very appreciated.
See you in the springtime.
Jill Keppeler is a writer for the Tonawanda News. She can be reached at jill.keppeler@tonawanda-news.com.
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Jill Keppeler
August 13, 2012
A very sincere thank you
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