Tomatoes

My Mom and Dad grew up with gardens in their backyards and so we had to have one too. The house was built into the side of a hill so the top half of the house went out the front yard and the bottom of the house came out the back. The hill was very steep on one side of the house so Dad decided to terrace that hill just like the Mayans did with their gardens on hills. Dad spent days leveling and putting in railroad ties to hold the dirt in place. Starting from the top Dad used two railroad ties to hold the dirt in place for each terrace and at the bottom of the hill he used three. He placed extra railroad ties on one side to form steps so we could all go up and down with ease. Each terrace was probably four or five feet wide. This is where Mom and Dad put the garden. Now planting a garden was the easy part my older sister and I helped. We walked behind Mom and Dad and patted the dirt down sometimes they even let us put the seeds into the holes. I was having a lot of fun helping Mom and Dad plant the garden. I could envision the ripened fruits and vegetables all ready to eat. I imagined how wonderful it was going to be. Mom and Dad planted the seeds and then one went to the store and brought home already growing plants; tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries. With those all planted we went off to play. The next day we went out to see our garden. Nothing had happened. It looked the same as yesterday. Something must have been wrong so I, with my older sister ran to Mom to tell her the garden didn't work. She smiled and told us that it takes time for a garden to grow. We asked how long and she said two or three months. I was shocked. How could a garden take so long? I knew that our apple, apricot and peach trees took that long but they were big trees and they had a lot of work to do to make the apples, apricots and peaches so big. Mom also said that we would have to work in the garden for it to grow right. I am sure I had heard wrong. We had just done all the work planting and burying the seeds. Weeds! Now the way she said weeds made it sound very scary. I think she was giving me a warning about just how scary they could be. Well we waited and watched the garden for days and then mom pointed out the first sprouts poking through the ground. Peas and carrots seemed to sprout the fastest and I loved pees straight from the pod. She also pointed to other sprouts coming out of the garden showing us the infamous weeds. Frankly I could not tell the difference from the sprouts and the weeds. I trusted Mom and went looking for more sprouts. Mom went after those weeds. Every day she would pluck a few more out of the garden and every day the weeds came back for more. Someday's it seemed like the weeds could sprout and grow ten inches tall in a single day. Mom kept at it. We tried to help but occasionally we picked a plant instead of a weed and Mom would ask us to try to replant it. After days and days of work with the weeds, every tier of the garden was green with the fruits and vegetables we had planted. The pumpkin and zucchini vines were taking over their area and part of the neighboring vegetables area. We spotted the green round tomatoes and the pees and beans in their pods. The corn was almost three feet tall but we could not see the carrots or the potatoes. The garden was a huge success. Towards the end of the summer Mom, Dad and their helpers had harvested wonderful vegetables and fruits. The strawberries had come and gone. The peas had long since been eaten and we had harvested bushels and bushels of tomatoes. Mom canned tomatoes to save for winter when there wasn't a garden any more to pick from. Mom had done so many tomatoes and yet the tomatoes continued to produce more fruit. One day we asked if we could pick a tomato and eat it with our friends from next door. Mom agreed and sent us out with two salt shakers. I knew just the tomato I wanted. It was bright red, smooth all around the sides and little lines as it curved in towards the stem. It was a two hander. I picked the tomato and sat with my older sister and our friends and we ate the tomatoes with the salt. Once done with one we asked Mom if we could pick another. She said we could eat as many as we wanted. Heaven had merged with the earth. Mom said as many as we wanted. I ate until I could not get another tomato into my mouth. The juices were running down my chin and I had juice and seeds all over my shirt. My hands were sticky, the salt shaker was sticky and the tomato plants still had more fruit. I didn't eat another tomato for a week.