Tomatoes for summer meals

Lufa Farms, Wikimedia Commons

There are so many ways to enjoy a ripe, fresh summer tomato.

---

Here I go again, with tales of my growing up years. This time it’s about home-grown tomatoes.

My dad and grandfather were the main gardeners for fruits and vegetables on our ranch. I had to water the plants, but didn’t mind, except for when there were what we called garden spiders that made webs in or on the tomato plants. They were very colorful spiders, but my family seems to share a gene that makes us shiver and cringe when we see any spider.

I will never forget the time when my dad washed his face and when he dried off with a hand towel, his face turned ashen. There, over one of his eyes, was a huge spider that had been on the towel. I assume now, decades later, that it was a wolf spider. Somehow or other he managed to get rid of it, because he was getting absolutely no help from me. Now that I am well into my adult years, I think I would welcome garden spiders on my tomato plants, because I assume they take care of those pesky tomato hornworms. Those worms seem to just appear out of nowhere and grow huge in no time at all.