Tomatoes...

I love tomatoes. When first met Jerry and everything was new I asked him if he loved tomatoes. He said they were okay...

That's when I knew he was not a gardener and probably had not had a warm tomato right off the vine.

By the time we had our first house and garden all that changed I won him over.

Now that we live in Illinois our yard is all woods so we plant our tomatoes here at the tea room. Of course space is limited and we are busy... Last year we made no effort at all and had one tomato, which we watched a squirrel take a bite out of. This year I was determined to give it my best shot.

I am easily taken in by advertisements and so it was pretty obvious I was going to give the new Miracle-Gro Organic a try. We mixed about 2 cups of this potting soil with each plant. And we sprinkled the plants once with the all purpose food. We meant to do it again but just never got to it.

The kind people at Kelly's Seeds talked me into this. I sprayed the blossoms early on in. I think it helped as we had our first tomato June 15.

This is by far the winner--Chef Jeff World's Largest Tomato. Second runner up is called Big Daddy.

When sliced both of them are bigger than my bread when I put them in sandwiches... I will keep the tags and do them again next year.

So what are we doing exotic with them? So far, just eating them with a little basil and Mrs. Dash. And in sandwiches. They are so sweet and so good we can't get enough of them. As the season winds down we will make sauce or bake with them, but right now they are still a treat warm from the vine. And Jerry has become a champion of tomatoes!

Jacqueline Gillam Fairchild--author: Greater Expectations.