Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Sad Saga of My 1st Tomato

Remember the thing of beauty? Indeed. All the excitement when this baby started turning red last week? All the tender caring? All the tending and watering? Remember all the hope and the starting of the planning on what I how I would eat this, my very first attempt at homegrown tomatoes? All your wonderful suggestions in the comments?

As per the suggestion of some of you wonderful gardeners out there, I picked that beauty before it got too red to avoid worms and other such nasties. My mouth was just watering. But lo and behold, when I turned it over this glared up at me from the bottom of the tomato:

A total nasty! All visions of bacon & tomato sandwiches fizzled in my head. All thoughts of mayo and tomato on texas toast flew from my mind. Taking a huge bite sprinkled with a few grains of salt and fresh ground pepper, juice running down my chin and hand left in a cartoon poof. Bummer. What is wrong with this thing? My mom had seen this flaw on three tomatoes that were still green and made me pick them and throw them away. It almost killed me to do it, but I was an obediant daughter. Because she's an awesome gardener. And because she's my mom.
I didn't see this on the red one until I picked it. But being the stubborn one that I am I couldn't let go of the dream of that first tomato so I let it get good and red on the counter and cut it in half.


Arrgh. Wanna see a grown woman cry? You should have been here at this moment. Durn.

Now all my tomato hopes and dreams on pinned on these guys. Grow babies, grow. Don't let me down now!

12 comments:

Lisa notes... said...

How disappointing! My daughter LOVES tomatoes and we've had this happen before, too. So I go to my dad's house instead to get tomatoes. :-) He grows them much better than I do.

Hope your next batch turns our delicious.

Barbara H. said...

How disappointing! Hope the rest of them do well.

Jientje said...

Ewwww, that's terible!! No tomato feast in your Fave Five next Friday!!! Keeping my fingers crossed for the next ones!

ellen b. said...

Bummer!!

ellen b. said...

Susanne,
Nick just cooks by the seat of his pants...Not many recipes. He made mashed potatoes and threw some smoked Gouda in.
:0)
I'm wondering if you google mashed potatoes with cheese if you'll get a recipe with the right proportions....

nikkipolani said...

How utterly dismaying! I wonder if what happened to your tomatoes is blossom end rot. See this link here. Maybe there's still something you can do about it so that your whole season isn't lost.

Jamie said...

Ugh! I know how frustrating that is. That exact thing is happening to one of my plants this year. I don't know why. Keep us posted!

Finding Pam said...

Our corn and tomatoes did not do well this year. That is so disheartening to look at that tomatoe.

I hope you find out what got it.

CSL said...

So sad. :-( Hope you get another soon!

ellen b. said...

Susanne my sister Vera left these instructions for you after your comment on my blog :0)
Susanne, all we do for the smoked gouda potatoes, is make our mashed potatos as we normally do with lots of butter, half n half and sour cream and then add grated smoked gouda to taste. We cook it just till the gouda melts. Very easy but adds a lot of flavor.

cmarie said...

You brought that icky tomato into your house? My goodness - you are one brave and optimistic girl! My advice; shop the local Farmers Market and be blessed. :)

Tina Leigh said...

IT will probably happen to the rest of them too...sorry to tell you. I think Nikki is putting you on the right track. We cant grow them for that reason and we have tried every way possible to grow them, buckets, mounds, everything but they get that rot mess & it is over. My neighbor usually fairs better than us & he grows them in buckets...Go figure! I hope the rest of yours will turn out OK.