From the ArcaMax Publishing, ArcaMax Chef Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/arcamaxchef/s-348679-655528
Last time I was continuing my story (the never ending story?) about
the third year I grew tomatoes in my garden. Years one and two were
tremendously successful and I didn't do anything but stick the plants
in the ground and water them when they looked like they were going to
die. I had the nicest crop of fresh tomatoes all summer both years. I
figured I was a born expert at growing tomatoes ... a green thumb with
plenty of red highlights.
I couldn't figure out what the problem was with growing tomatoes. All
I ever heard from people was how difficult it was to actually get the
tomatoes from the garden to the kitchen table due to bugs, blight,
vermin, varmints, worms and other worries (You were wondering where I
was going to get the last "w" from in that sentence, weren't you?).
In year three the muskrats from the salt marsh behind my house found
my garden. Actually, they found the fermented fruit under my fruit
trees first and, having developed a case of the munchies, went looking
for a tomato chaser to go with the fruit wine. They could not be
stopped with a simple fence; the inebriated muskrats were emboldened
and scaled the four foot chicken wire with ease.
I put a chicken wire lid on the garden and that worked. Nothing could
touch my tomatoes now ... it would take an act of God to get through
that maximum security garden.
On a particularly hot and humid day right before the main crop of
tomatoes had reached their peak, there had been warnings all day about
severe weather. I wasn't that worried; there had been warnings of
such weather all summer and we had been missed each time. As the
afternoon wore on, however, the sky took on an eerie appearance. By
late after noon, I could hear the rumbles of thunder in the distance.
All too soon, the area in the horizon, the area that storms routinely
would come from if we were going to get severe weather, turned black
...
Note to readers: I know people in this country and around the World
have been experiencing some terrible weather problems this year. I
hope no one thinks I am being thoughtless in writing about my
experiences with a storm that happened many years ago. My heart and
prayers go out to everyone who has experienced any loss due to the
terrible storms this year. The truth is, I think I started in on this
story when it was still snowing and I didn't intend for the story to
culminate in the middle of storm season.
God Bless America.
Enjoy!