"The foolish colonel will foam and froth at the mouth and double over with appendicitis. All that oxalic acid, in one dose, and you're dead...

...If the Wolf Peach [tomato] is too ripe and warmed by the sun, he'll be exposing himself to brain fever." - Dr. James Van Meter, Physician to Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson, 1820.

Tomatoes got off to a bad start, it seems. For all that they are pretty much a staple now, they had to overcome quite a rap. Mary and I have had a few tomato plants over the years with moderate success, and in fact gave over the tomato bed in the back yard to raspberries a couple of years ago given the fact that the latter seemed much happier in the location and have been producing a luxurious crop ever since. That said, some of you may recall that I quietly purchased a packet of tomato seeds as well as a packet of pumpkin seeds while we were in Paris, at the flower market near Notre Dame. Having gotten off to a late start, I raised the plants in our little greenhouse, then moved them into bigger pots around the back yard to pollinate. Once the weather started to turn cold I moved them back into the greenhouse and set the heater at 80....they have been very happy since and are producing a nice little crop which although extremely late is a very welcome sign for harvest in the weeks to come. The tomatoes are small but interesting, the variety I had chosen was one that is squat and wrinkled; they are just beginning to turn color and seem to be a deep almost purplish color. Hopefully they will have a taste that is as special as their appearance...and I hope to be able to grow again next year from their seed.

The Pumpkins are coming too, we only have two small ones and they are still a dark green; at this point it is not looking like they are going to turn color, so I have put glass domes over them to incubate them a bit....hopefully they will at least producer seeds to use for next year.

All in all, the experiment is not too bad...and next spring will tell. My dream is to continue the strains of both these plantings, as a kind of perpetual memory of our visit to Paris. While tending the little plants that have now taken over the yard and greenhouse, I can't help but think about Grandpa Miller, who grew everything from seeds - he would have never bought a start, that would have simply been beneath him. Grandpa taught me a lot about plants and propagation, about capturing flyaway seeds from flowers, cross-pollinating to get the right hybrids, and about grafting fruit trees. The latter is not really all that practical unless Mary and I decide to put in an orchard, but I really am proud of the fact that I know how. It is a nice connection to growing up and spending time with Grandpa -