It's happening...

That thing I've been fantasizing about since I first planted a garden 11 years ago, that thing that I've been jealously watching happen to my gardening friends is finally happening to me: THE TOMATOES ARE GOING NUTS! I am so excited! I have had many tomato problems: the problem of tomatoes not ripening, the problem of tomato plants freezing, the problem of chickens eating the green tomatoes, the problem of NO TOMATOES, but as of yet I have never had to deal with the blissful problem of too many tomatoes. Part of this is due to my stubborn refusal to buy tomato plants at a nursery. I start all my tomatoes from seed around late January/early February, where they grow into spindly little wisps of plants on the few windowsills of my house. Then I begin calculating when I should plant them out into the garden - is it too cold still? Even though it is warm, will we have an unexpected frost? Who knows; every year is a gamble. After spending a couple weeks hardening off the precious seedlings, I plant them in the garden. And they sit there. Doing nothing. Well, probably they are growing roots or something, or maybe it takes them a long time to recover from the shock of being transplanted, but every year my friends begin talking about their first tomato blossoms while my tomato plants are skinny stems with two leaves each, just hanging out in the garden taking up space. Every year about this time I despair - I must have started them too late, put them out too late, not planted the proper types for my region, etc. It is all very dramatic. And every year I get about four not-so-good tomatoes around November. Not so this year! Every day I go outside to water my garden, and every day I come back in with a small bowl full of juicy, sweet, ripe tomatoes. Sungold Cherry, Persimmon, Black Krim, Prudens Purple, Principe Borghese... and more to come. I see salsa and marinara sauce in my future! I really don't know what is different about this, my ELEVENTH try at growing tomatoes from seed, and may not ever be able to duplicate my success, but I plan on enjoying this year's haul to the fullest.