It is time. 117 days after planting, I'm now about to enjoy the first fruits of my indoor cherry tomato plant. Ritually sliced with trembling hand and adorned with basil leaves picked at the moment, garnished with only a small amount of fleur de sel, fresh ground Tellicherry pepper, a grassy green olive oil and the best balsamic I could salvage from the cupboard - all elements undeserving of the privilege. This might all sound overly dramatic to you, but I have a love for tomatoes that borders on worship. I've come home to the harsh beam of their grow light for the past 4 months, watered and pruned every day, lifted them up when they've fallen completely over (twice) and trellised them with yarn. Now it's time for the payoff. My first effort at such a thing, I've made some mistakes - most importantly - as much as I love Portland's tap water, these tomato plants hate it, hence leaves browning far before their time and a bounty from the 2 plants I estimate at less than 40 (half of what I was expecting). But no matter, as I write this I'm enjoying tomatoes and basil fresh off the vine...in April...and it's heaven.
Tomatoes growing in my Aerogarden
Basil and other herbs growing my other Aerogarden
gorgeous! my mouth is watering!
Posted by: amy | April 23, 2009 at 05:52 PM
Quite a nice arrangement. I don't even like tomatoes but that does look good. And the basil, olive oil, balsamic and fresh ground pepper are enough to make me want to try it. Mmmboy!
Posted by: Scott | April 26, 2009 at 07:34 AM