Since I no longer have a vegetable garden (it stayed with the house and my ex-wife), I bought a single tomato plant for my apartment, mostly for company. Having been an outdoor farmer all my life, it never occurred to me that tomato plants require pollination in order to sprout tomatoes. When it finally dawned on me, more than a dozen flowers had appeared only to wither away "childless".
I carefully formed a paper towel (I wasn't about to buy a whole box of Q-tips for any plant) into a point and "sexed" the few remaining open flowers. I did this once a day for about four days. It was looking pretty futile and I thought I had missed the window of opportunity, the flowers having already reached menopause and unable to bear fruit.
I waited a couple more days to see if I could avoid having to put the plant out of my misery. Yesterday morning, right after I got up, I went to check out the barren plant. I gave it the once over and was about to take it away to destroy it when I thought I saw something. I took a closer look.
It was hiding behind the flower, almost indiscernible, but there it was--a tomato! I was the proud father of a bead-sized tomato. There was much rejoicing last night. As many as one beer were drunk. And if that weren't enough to make my year, today, the lil feller is already almost marble-sized. But that's still not all--he has a little brother!
Sure, between the plant, the new pot and the soil, these two tomatoes have cost me about $6.50 apiece, but buying a couple of tomatoes in the store for fifty cents just doesn't give you the thrill that fatherhood does.
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