The Farm Manager has been mighty pleased with the fecundity of her tomato patch this year.
A mere ten by ten feet, its strategic location ten feet from the kitchen door would under normal circumstances provide a steady stream of tomato salad and tomato sandwiches at this time of year, not to mention tomato sauce till same time next year, provided the canning plans come off as planned.
Alas, the best of the tomatoes keep disappearing.
That's been a bit of a mystery, and we were starting to suspect the retired school teacher down the road, until my expert sleuthing over the past couple of weeks allowed us to tie the loose ends of this mystery together.
I'd noticed the last couple times I cut the grass that I'd be running over ripe tomatoes hundreds of feet from the tomato patch. Hmm...
Then, just this morning, I happened to look out the window just as Lucy, the Tennessee Brindle Treeing Coon Hound, was trotting off with a plump ripe tomato clamped in her jaws.
I watched her. She carried her prize onto the lawn over towards the barn. Then she started playing with it. Tossed it in the air and chased it. Sometimes she'd catch it in the air, sometimes she'd miss and have to scoop in off the ground. Then that tomato would be airborne again, and so on. Great fun! She obviously can do this for hours...
So we were faced with a choice. Should we beat Lucy away from the tomato patch, or should we enjoy watching her enjoying herself?
We've decided giving up a few tomato sandwiches and some sauce is a small price to pay...
No comments:
Post a Comment