They planted large tomato plants in up against the barrels in September. The plants are now 9-10' tall and bearing like crazy, enough to send bags of tomatoes out into the world. After all of these years of growing them year round, teaching others how, telling them not to believe the nay-sayers, and gifting tomatoes to believers and non-believers alike, someone was sending ME tomatoes! Grown in winter, in a greenhouse Cord designed and built, from seed and with love.
A circle complete for sure. I never knew just how wonderful it is to receive fresh, delicious tomatoes in the dead of winter. The juice ran down our chins! I felt like I was tasting them for the first time. There was moaning.
The fact that Cord and I were so over-booked last year meant our gardens suffered - there was no love! There are no winter tomatoes because after 19 years, we finally dropped the ball and everything isn't growing when it should be. It's okay - we're so looking forward to the 2012 season! However, that bowl of tomatoes is somethin'.
I am humbled by their success - they certainly have a green thumb but the most important thing is they believed enough to build it in the first place - now they are believing the results.
It feels so good to know someone else knows what it's like to walk into their warm, passive solar green oasis in the dead of winter and be amongst the green and smell moist earth - ah! heaven!