From a nearby correspondent:
This week I have my first ripe heirloom tomato. In March, the unlikely plants emerged from a weed-filled box in my greenhouse. They must have grown from seeds I saved last season, and in an obviously foolhardy act, like someone buying a lottery ticket, I cast them into the dirt. I may as well have planted redwoods. I knew better. All those years of pouring hope and fertilizer onto Lowe’s bought plants with visions of that perfect mid-summer BLT, only to experience another failed harvest. Growing tomatoes in South Carolina is a valuable primer of life.
But for the grace of mother nature and that leak in my ceiling, I am rewarded with one meager tomato and one great lesson. This is a thing of wonder and beauty.
Ah. Fabulous!
I must rush to say, however, that the accompanying photo here is not my correspondent’s excellent and rare single heirloom. No, these two are simple market-bought from last summer. But beautiful enough to have caught my camera’s eye. A bit more, uh, Tomato Grace?