Photo Friday: Oh, For the Love of Green Tomatoes!

We started out our family garden this year a bit more modestly than last year. I learned, I thought, not to bite off more than I can chew. When it comes to feeding and watering my kids, I'm kind of rocking it...or mostly. I have one kid who is particular about what he eats, but has a decent array of healthy and less healthy foods he does like and regularly consumes. I have another kid who is such a picky eater that to this day he has had only one food source ever--breast-milk. Boy, really puts the other one into perspective, huh? But overall, I'm pretty darn good at feeding and watering my boys. It's a really good thing they make a lot of noise, though, because I fear that if they didn't, they would quickly go the direction of just about any plant I've ever raised. It's not that I do not have a green thumb--I'm a decent gardener. I'm just a forgetful gardener, A procrastinating gardener. A neglectful gardener. But before you call Plant Protective Services on me, please know that although we planted several types of seeds this year that I know grow well in our garden and produce produce my toddler might eat, we still have one thing growing: the tomatoes I planted last year that went to seed.

I am pleased to say that our tomato forest seems to be thriving in spite of me. So a couple of weeks ago as we were enjoying a cooler morning in the play garden, I decided to check out the status of everything else (all DOA, sad to say) and while I was at it, pulled up some weeds. Y was enjoying the fresh air and a nap in his stroller. S was "helping out" using a variety of gardening tools I keep accessible for him to explore with. As I bent over some quite tenacious weeds, pulling up roots by hand and then with the help of a rake, S sidled over and asked "Mommy, what are you doing?" 

I explained to him that I was pulling up weeds. He wanted to know what weeds were. I explained that they are plants that grow all on their own--that you did not plant yourself. The seeds got there either from a bird or a bug or maybe the wind... Some weeds are really pretty, like wildflowers and dandelion puffs that we so love to blow... Some weeds are even useful, like mint, an herb we often use in the kitchen. But some weeds can take up too much space and sun and water in our gardens, and we pull them out so the seeds we did plant have space to grow...

"Mommy, what are you doing?" Oh, the running monologue of a curious toddler. This question comes up again and again.

"Still pulling weeds... What are you doing?" I asked, still bent over, trying to determine whether I was plucking a weed or a displaced carrot...

"I'm pulling weeds, too!" S responded gleefully. 

"Oh, thank you! I sure could use your help!" I responded as I returned to a vertical position, thinking to myself that perpendicular is not my favorite position post-30...and then I saw it. Piles of freshly plucked green cherry tomatoes. S was pulling them, one by one from the vine! My initial instinct was to shout "OH NO! That's the only thing that might actually survive a summer in our garden and make it to our table..." but I didn't. Well, the "OH NO!" part did come out, but I stopped myself there. Technically by my definition, S was pulling up weeds--something growing in our garden that we didn't plant there. I planted two tomato plants last summer. This summer, I have about five or six growing up all on their own. And really, even with the piles of green tomatoes prematurely evicted from the vine, we are in no danger of not having way too many tomatoes to eat in a few more weeks. This was, however, a definite teachable moment. For us both. 

My main "goal" with our garden this year was for it to be a truly hands-on and child-centered experience. I set it up to invite S's curiosity (and sometimes the neighbor kids' as well) but I did not want it to be a space he could only appreciate from afar. I wanted him in the garden, in the mulch and dirt and digging up and discovering worms and bugs. I wanted him coming inside covered from head to toe in dirt from making cupcakes in his mud kitchen just like I did when I was his age. Those were some of my best childhood memories and they are becoming some of his. So I could instill the fear of life in him (or at least the fear of gardening) by scolding him for picking unripe fruits and harming a plant and not asking first... 

But he's three and growing up is a process. It's a process for children and tomatoes alike. If we do our job pretty well, we end up with rosy cheeked ripe tomatoes as a finished product. But kids could care less about the finished product (especially ones who will only lick a tomato). They are entirely focused on the process--and how much more might we also appreciate the fruits of our labor if we could focus a bit more on that process as well. 

So for the moment, we had a pile of green tomatoes--and rather than stew over it (oh yeah, pun definitely intended), we rolled with it. Literally even. We rolled tomatoes back and forth. We looked at the outside of a green tomato and observed that it's a different color than the ones we eat from the store. We talked about how fruits and vegetables change color as they ripen. We felt how firm they still were by gently squeezing. We observed what happens when you squeeze less gently! We brought one inside, at S's request, to wash and cut open. We looked at the seeds. He licked it. He did not like it. He does not like red tomatoes either. Did I mention I never even planted tomatoes this year?