day-doe

These pictures were taken in September, but tomato season is still with us. The end of October is approaching, and yet temperatures reached the mid-80s last week . Harvests have slowed, but we still have baskets on our counter piled high with tomatoes, cukes, basil and beans from our community garden plot. This week's favorite salad paired cukes and feta cheese, with a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, red onions, and s&p.

Sam's favorite crop has been the one plant we have at home: a potted sungold cherry tomato. He's helped with planting, watering, and harvesting, and whenever we pass by, he asks for a "day-doe" or two or three. There are fewer ripe ones each day; Denis and I don't even eat them anymore so as to save them all for Sam. I am starting to explain, when he asks for more, that tomato season is slowing down and pretty soon there will be none left until next summer. It's pretty abstract for a toddler, I realize, but I'm hoping some of the concept gets through. We'll pull up the plant and put it into the compost together when the time comes. Little does he know that at our new house the entire front yard will be planted with food. We'll have a bunch of sungold plants next summer for him to fill his belly if he wants to. And in the back yard, we'll have berries. My dream of seeing Sam run outside in his pj's and barefeet to pick berries for breakfast has just gotten a lot closer to coming true.