First Tomato Sighting of the Season

Our first green tomato is visible under the leaves inside the tomato cage.

It always amazes me how quickly and dramatically a gardener can go from impatient waiting to an avalanche of harvest.

Tomatoes especially arrive as genteel newcomers and grow into sprawling monsters. When the first crop of tomatoes start greening up, it seems almost scandalous to pick them for fried green tomatoes (or baked, which we discovered we preferred last year.

When they start turning red, there's no end to them. Until you start trying to can them or turn them into sauce. Then it seems as if we should have just plowed up the entire backyard and planted "Fink Tomato Farms."

This year, I've promised myself that I'm going to scout out the perfect tomato sauce recipe.

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