The Most Expensive Tomatoes-------EVER!

This Summer I wanted to have lots of Brandywine tomatoes, an heirloom variety with few seeds and lots of flavor. They tend to be irregularly shaped and are prone to splitting, and hence rotting. The ones at the grocery store always seemed overripe as did the ones at the farmer's market. I decided I would grow my own.

I bought eight large plastic pots(8 @ $8.49), eight supports (8 @ $2.29 ?), $20.00 worth of good quality potting soil, and then about $10.00 for some young healthy plants, some Brandywine, and one yellow-pear cherry tomato plant and one grape cherry tomato plant.


For a while everything grew really well, and then the deer discovered them. I had not sprayed the plants with anything because I did not want that putrid stuff on our tomatoes. I thought perhaps that I had them close enough to the house and that, furthermore, tomato leaves are supposed to be poisonous, so maybe the deer would not be fans.


The deer ripped one plant completely out of the soil, and bit several of the others back severely. I moved the least damaged ones to different spots on the deck where I hoped they would be safe although they would get a lot less light. The deer even pursued them onto our deck! Fortunately we have an upper level on our deck ( with even less sunlight) and although it is a little crowded with our table and chairs, I made room for the least ravaged of the plants.

The plants took a long time to recover from the setbacks and are just now beginning to offer a few fruits. It appears that I will harvest a grand total of two Brandywine tomatoes, and a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes. What you see in the picture at the top is my largest haul so far. I picked about seven cherry tomatoes five days ago. At least it looks like there are a few more on the way. And of course I am waiting for those two Brandywines to ripen.

It reminds me of the old joke about the two fishing buddies. After a disappointing haul of only one fish on their vacation, they tally up their expenses, cabin rental, boat rental, fishing tackle and bait only to discover that the one fish they caught cost 14 hundred dollars. "It's a good thing we didn't catch anymore!"

25 things about Apricot Blossom

1. I'm shy most of the time.
2. I like wearing clothes that are too big for me. It makes me kinda feel like I'm walking around covered in blankets. But I don't like ponchos.
3. I do like nachos.
4. I don't like tomatoes.
5. I like detail work and staple guns.
6. My hands shake.
7. I use my cat as a pillow. Unless he isn't around, then I use a pillow.
7 1/2. That last one is glamourized. I like doing that with facts some times. I can only use Harold as a pillow successfully for 3-5 minutes at a time.
7 3/4. I often lie only to turn myself in a second later.
8. I like non-fiction books better than fiction.
9. I like painting with my hands on walls.
10. I used to love talking about myself, but I don't anymore and I have trouble thinking of things to talk about.
10 1/2. This took me a few days to fill out.
11. I love heights because they scare me.
12. I hate horror movies because they scare me. They make my neck tense.
13. Sometimes I wear slutty clothes, but they make me feel silly because I'm not slutty. So I end up looking silly instead of slutty.
14. I'm glad I've stopped doing that (#13).
14 1/2. Well, it's much rarer.
15. I think I speak really loudly, but lots of people say that I don't, so I guess I have no idea how loudly I speak.
16. I'm really bad at buying clothes that fit me. Most of them don't, so I tell myself that I like wearing big clothes since they fit me better than the clothes that are too small for me. I do, sometimes, but usually I just wish I could figure out how to wear clothes.
17. I hate doing dishes. Like, a lot. Especially washing off tomato-based stuff, which only aids in my dislike of tomatoes. I guess it's a good thing I don't like tomatoes then, because I'd only end up resenting them when I had to wash the dishes.
18. 25 is a really big number sometimes.
19. Once, when I was little, i carried a dead butterfly around on a frisbee for hours and sang to it.
20. I pretend I'm not a sentimental person, but I fail at it. I remember turning 8 and being upset because I missed being 7.
21. I don't like birthdays. I worry about aging sometimes, but I remember that I always have and it makes me feel better because it gives me perspective.
21 1/2. I think I'm going to be an awesome old lady. It's just the inbetween stuff I'm not so sure about.
23. I'm an incorrigible optimist.
24. I cry really really easily, and am constantly having to assure people around me that I'm ok. Happy, sad, angry, any mildly strong emotion will do it.
24. I never meant to end up in the theatre. I wanted to be a scientist.
22. I love laughing. I laugh a lot.
25. I'd be a terrible scientist.

So, now you know how badly we're hurting, what to do?

To quote Ryan Adams: "I feel like suicide, but there's bars out here for miles...."

If bars aren't your thing insert favorite obsession/hobby, i.e., roses, home grown tomatoes, skateboarding, poker, records, changing poopy diapers.....