Missy's Homestead - A Watched Tomato Never Ripens

Missy's Homestead - A Watched Tomato Never Ripens

Patience has never been my thing and living for six years in NYC did not help my sense of "go go go," "hurry up, hurry up, faster, faster," and "I wanted that done five minutes ago."   My little homestead is not only about trying to live a simpler and more sustainable life, but it is also about personal growth and change on top of doing my part to contribute to society and to help make the world a better place.  I love my current practice of growing some of my own food and my garden has been there for me over the last several months during a time that I really needed a distraction from all the change that was whirling around me.  As seen in my previous posts I built my garden boxes, grew a lot of my seeds indoors early on and shoveled all the dirt myself into my bins.  My garden gave me projects that made me feel successful.    Currently things are moving along very nicely in the garden butt of course I always want things to move faster.  Every morning and often in the evening before the sun sets I go out and water the garden, remove weeds, clear out dead leaves, check on the fruit production etc. etc.  And every time I go out there I tend to think...why is this not ready?  When will this get bigger?  Why don't I have any of those things yet?  I tend to focus more on how slow things are going and not  on how well they are growing and how delicious the product will be when it is finally ready to be picked off the plants.  

Greg and I went away for over a week and when I returned I couldn't believe how much progress there had been.  Just how many tomatoes had ripened and how many squash blossoms there still are.  I went out and picked 30 tomatoes, 7 peppers, 3 zuchhini, 2 cucumbers, 2 lemon cucumbers and a few beets.    There was something so wonderful about being able to go out to the garden and pick and pick.  

After I got all the veggies out of the garden I sat back and looked at the two giant bowls I had filled.  I was beaming.  And it made me realize that maybe I should learn to  ignore my garden a little bit more.  Now I don't mean not go out and water and clean up but maybe I need to stop obsessing over that one tomato that is kinda ripe.  Because as I have found out it won't be ripe for days and if I sit and stare at it everyday it won't get ripe any faster.  Maybe I need to sit back and enjoy the task of the garden and the joy I get from learning about gardening than being so obsessed with how much my garden will produce.  I need to ignore the day to day of each tomato and learn pick it when it comes right off the vine when touched.  I am going to try this tactic for the rest of the summer and into the early fall.  The rate we are going with weather and plant wise things should be blooming way into October this year.  The rest of the summer is about learning to sit back, relax and ignore the growing tomatoes.  I never imagined that my little place would change and teach me so much about living a healthier and more sustainable life.  

Happy Summer,

Missy