Garden Life: Tomato
For me, the greatest wonder of seeds is that such tiny things should hold the promise of so much beauty and productivity. It is no less with the tomato seed, an inconspicuous white speck that with time, soil, sunshine, water, and the quickening power of God becomes a vine weighted with summer fruit.
Sturdy stems, covered in fine white hairs, stretch to the top of the cage and put out branches and leaves and flowers. The flowers are like bright yellow stars clustered in the thick foliage. The leaves smell sweetly acid in the strong sunlight and when you take them in your fingers.
The flower fades, but if fertilized by a passing insect, a fat little globule of green is left behind.
The fruit swells with the spring rainstorms.
The faintest blush steals over its round cheek.
It spreads and deepens into an appealing scarlet.
A bouquet of tomatoes in various stages of ripeness.
Photographs: Homestead Tomatoes, an heirloom variety especially developed for the Floridian climate and available from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
Photographs and text © 2011.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011