How can anyone have a history with a tomato?
I think I do. I will let you be the judge and jury while I present the evidence.
My evidence doesn't begin in the beginning. I begin when I was 9 years old, in the 4th grade at Lincoln School in Muscatine. This was our first year after losing the family farm in March, 1938, living near Muscatine. Now Dad had rented an 80 acres bordering Weed Park on the road called "lover's lane." Our main crops were going to be tomatoes for H. J. Heinz, a ketchup factory processing and bottling ketchup, along with field corn. Both crops became a disaster ending our living on the 80 acres.
More explanation for the disaster is needed. I'll start with the tomatoes. We may have planted five acres or more. Memory does tell me if I helped plant but memory does say I helped keep the weeds down and especially pick the tomatoes putting them in hampers (half bushel baskets) and then on the horse drawn wagon. With a load we went to the factory where they were received and each basket dumped on a tray where workers could examine them to see if they were acceptable. Unfortunately many were rejected. A wet year with too much rain had left many rotting in the field and we had to pick carefully. Often we did not pick carefully enough and the crop was a wipe out.
My pleasure in this wipe out had been to see a ripe tomato the right size, wipe it off, and eat it on the spot. It must have been good since I had more than one.
This morning while eating a couple tomato sandwiches using tomatoes from our garden, reminiscing took over, and I remembered that tomato patch in Muscatine and the H.J. Heinz factory and the lost crop while enjoying eating tomatoes at the same time. There might be a paradox here someplace. Now I am reminiscing more as there is more to the story/stories. Tomatoes are the Mississippi River with other stories serving as tributaries.
I grew up in a garden. In the depression of 1930's with few commercial toys or sand box my toys and play area were garden centered. Pulling weeds, hoeing, and helping harvest were some of my chores. After finishing my education, getting married, and starting a family with a house we called our own, I began to garden again on a small scale. A tomato plant was often enjoyed.
Upon retiring as a hospital chaplain I became even more serious about gardening. I was out in the country with a lake home. I began small but soon I had a 20' x 60' garden fenced in to keep the rabbits out. They still got in. The fence was four foot high and they could jump the fence. Rabbits and cats come from the same family.
I always had different tomato varieties, from cherry too large. Even a heirloom from time to time. From early days we left the tomato plant to grow on the ground but now I stake them up.
Fast forward to the present, my first wife died while were at the lake. I lived and gardened alone missing my partner who knew what to do with the produce. Then unexpectedly I met an amazing lady who grew up in a large family with a big garden. Green beens were her favorite.
Her home had a large yard with a sizable garden flat on the ground. Both of us were getting older so she decided to landscape with four raised beds 8' x 20'. The landscaper filled the beds with a combination of good growing soil. Worm castings were included. The first year our plants created a jungle. Now four years later we have plants producing like I have never seen, i.e. the tomatoes, pepper, and string beans. We know the varieties we like and they are the varieties we plant. With two three tiered grow light most plants grow from seeds. We are organic gardeners. I grow lettuce under the grow lights more than planting them outside.
This year the celebrity tomato had been hybridized. they are a little larger fruit with plants that are heavy producers. With the first frost holding off I hope to have a number of tomato sandwiches before the freeze and then more as the green ones ripen.
Since my partner has canned a number of jars of tomato sauce we will continue to have our tomatoes during the winter.
There are some additional tributaries, more history with the tomato waiting to be told. I could end up doing a commercial for H. J. Hienz.
Marlin Whitmer, Board Certified Chaplain, retired.