Tomatoes!

This is how it all began, back in June, with 6 plants we bought from a local nursery. The 2 cherry tomato plants and the Roma tomato plant are here in the front of the photo, and the 3 in the back of the photo are 2 varieties of slicing tomatoes: a giant kind, and 2 mediums.
Here you can see how the cherry and Roma tomato plants grew over into HoneyBear's dirt path. (Most of the rest of the dirt in the yard is ours!)

This is how the bigger tomato vines looked about a month ago. Then they grew so heavy that the wire cages had to be reinforced with posts, extra cages, and a plastic wagon!

This was the tomato harvest over a few day's time. Can you tell the different varieties? Romas are the pear-shaped ones, the cherry tomatoes are the small round ones, and there are two sizes of slicing tomatoes----all yummy! Our favorite way to eat them is to chop them up and mix with rice and chicken and spices. We like salsa, so maybe we will bottle some salsa, too, if we get enough energy. Kristopher, would you like to come and visit to make salsa? Remember that year when we had a salsa garden and you did most of the bottling/pressure cooking? A fun and yummy memory!

Since we are expecting our first freeze tonight, Bill picked all the tomatoes that are left, even the green ones, as well as other veggies. If not, they would be ruined by the freeze. Tomorrow, all of the leaves will start to brown and crumble in the garden, and on the trees, the leaves will start to have pretty autumn colors and later fall to the ground. Grandpa Bill will put some of these leaves into the compost bin, to rot and later help new things to grow next spring and summer. Such is the cycle of life. Gardening is a good hobby---good for the body and good for the soul, too!