Not yet ripe...

I have been feeling a bit anxious lately - having a hard time waiting and being patient for much. I've already been getting handfuls of ripe cherry tomatoes daily, and a couple of zucchini and cucumber. But, looking at the clouded sky, a sense of rain in the air, and a very long and emotional day at work behind me...I wandered around the yard with a hose in hand to add liquid life to the things that need it to grow. My roses and other perennials were parched but still budding. I wanted to cut a few branches for a vase, but the buds were so tightly closed that I just need to let them relax and open on their own time. Again, I hate waiting.

My veggie garden has continued to be completely neglected. Perhaps I'll get out and weed them today. Thistle, crab grass and clover have taken over the veggie patch, and is hiding the climbing cucumber vines and zucchini...and providing ample cover for the amphibians and insects that have created new homes in this protected space. Yup, time to move them out.

As I watered the potted herbs and the little perennials I have yet to put into the ground, I took another look at my veggies, and half the soil was sloppy and damp, and the other half was thirsty and dry. How is that? I water them the same? Perhaps the soil is different in that area? Anyhow...as the clouds continued to cover the sunset that evening...I battled the blood-sucking itch provoking insects that find my skin attractive, and pulled off the vines what I thought were 20 or so very ripe sweet olive & sweet 100's tomatoes, 3 tennis ball sized early girls, 2 green peppers, a jalapeno pepper and and a cucumber. A couple of little zucchini looked ready to pick, and so I began to imagine how they would taste with our dinner.

A quiet evening with my husband, kids over at grandma's house for a few hours,  and I brought in the veggies to wash and prepare with our meal. I looked again. Are these the same tomatoes that I pulled from the garden just now? They don't look ripe at all! They're actually more orange than red, and a bit of yellow still on the tops! Really!?! I could have sworn they were so ripe that they'd taste like sugar going down! Man...what a disappointment. These lovely beautiful things sitting here, and they're not quite ready to eat. Boo. Even the zucchini was very firm as I sliced it up for the grill. It still tasted good, but perhaps I can wait for them to get a bit bigger next time. Not too big...but wait for enough to feed more than just me.

Last summer the tomatoes that came from my organic garden were the best things I've ever tasted! Even my mom complimented on how sweet and full of flavor they were, because we left them to ripen on the vine in the hot sun, and they really were better than anything I've ever grown before. Okay, I had never grown anything before - but they were better than anything we bought at the store or the farmer's market. So...I was pretty proud of my tomatoes. Having 6 plants last year, we thought they'd make plenty of sauce for the winter...but I wasn't able to can anything, because we ate them all - just at the peak of flavor, right from the vine. So I planted 9 this season. And yet, it's the end of July and the tomatoes are still green. [...sigh...]

It seems to me that so many things in my life are this way lately. I think it's ready to pick, but it's not ready to eat! It think it's waited long enough for the sun, water, and soil to do the trick...and yet I have to wait a little while longer. I think I'm ready to move on toward something new, to get started already, but the job is not ready, the people around me are not ready. It's not like I don't have anything else to do...because I have a long list of things to do...but I'm more interested in getting the fun part started! Let's eat already! I'm starving! No - I don't want to eat that - I want dessert! Red, ripe, tomato dessert! [...sigh...]

Timing is everything, I know.