I live in a small apartment building just on the edge of the city; only fifteen minutes by train from the downtown core. (Four days by car during construction season.) Our building backs on to a ravine that is like a small forest. We don’t have much of a back yard, but what there is gives us a quiet, shady place to have a bbq and relax. I have spotted a coyote, several foxes and there’s even a family of deer that travel through there on occasion. Early in the season, bunnies are plentiful. We see them zipping around the yards and playing tag with each other. Later in the season, we don’t see so very many. I’m going with the explanation that they have packed up and moved on…cuz I really don’t want to think about the alternative. And we mustn’t forget raccoons, raccoons and more raccoons. They come every evening at dusk to partake of the “Cul-de-Sac All You Can Eat Buffet“….aka the garbage bins.
Click here to go directly to Tomato Cucumber Salad recipe.
Anyway…I’m a salad person and I love the little grape or cherry tomatoes in my salads. I don’t know about where you live, but here…well, those little pint boxes of tomatoes can sell for anywhere from $3 to $6 depending on where you are shopping and what week it is. I go through a couple of boxes a week and that adds up quickly.
The complex (co-op) where I live allows for us to do the gardening, lawn mowing , snow shoveling, etc…in exchange for a lower rate on our rent. Last year I started thinking about growing something other than flowers in the very small patch of land behind the building but it was too late in the season to do anything about it then. So earlier this year, I spoke with one of the other tenants that used to work that patch. He told me to go ahead and use it. He and his wife only had one rhubarb plant there that would probably come back, but if I was willing to take care of that along with whatever I was planting, the spot was all mine.
Keep in mind that I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to gardening, but I am a big fan of Google. If you have access to google, you really do know everything! So, the first thing I did (before consulting Google) was go out to a garden center in hopes of getting something to plant. Hmmm….it seems that the planting season starts much earlier than I thought. Most of the fruit and vegetable plants were either sold out or so picked over that only a few motley specimens were left. But with perseverance and a tank of gas, I was able to find one grape tomato plant and one strawberry plant….$3 each! They were both a little raggedy, but hey…I am too on occasion and I still want to be loved.
Link to instructions for growing strawberries.
Link to instructions for growing cherry tomatoes.
So, I took my bedraggled plants and brought them home. I didn’t bring them into my apartment because I wasn’t sure how the (evil, plant-eating) kitties would behave. I brought them directly around the building and introduced them to what would soon be their new home.
Because it was getting late in the day and I didn’t really know what I was supposed to do next, so I left the baby plants, still in their pots, alone in the back yard…in the dark…with the forest critters. Relax…they survived the night!
After consulting Google, I went out early the next morning and bought a bag of topsoil. I spread this all around the couple of feet of land I would be farming on and worked it into the existing packed earth. I dug a couple of holes and planted Tom & Berry (TOMato & Berry – a wordplay on the old comedic cat & mouse cartoon duo, Tom & Jerry…for you youngsters that don’t remember them).
Google said I had to water…so I watered. Pretty neared drowned those plants. But Google assured me that they needed lots and lots of water for the first while. I got up earlier than normal and went out to check on Tom & Berry each morning. I dragged the hose around to give them their daily drink (and fill up the birdbath for the little forest critters). About 5 days into this new routine, I woke up hearing rain on the window. Best present ever! I reset the alarm and rolled over for another half hour.
Before long, the strawberry plant erupted into several little white flowers, which Google lead me to believe would eventually turn into juicy strawberries. And did you know that grape tomatoes started with tiny yellow flowers? I didn’t….but yes, they were growing! Tom and Berry were growing!
Every morning I would go out and check on the plants, water if necessary, pull a few weeds and admire the blossoms that were slowly turning into fruit that I would eventually eat. Little, white strawberries and tiny, green tomato globes were beginning to show. I’m not always a patient person. Anticipation was killing me!
Then disaster struck! The morning that I went out and found that the little, white strawberries had completely vanished was horrible. The plant was still there. The stems on which the berries were growing were still there. But the strawberry buds were gone! Snipped off, vanished! Well, all but one. There was one in the very back that was somewhat hidden. The strawberry thieves missed it. Now, I’m not sure who the culprit was, but I’m guessing it was bunnies. Well, I was disappointed, but it wasn’t the end of the world. I started a “berry watch” to see if the lone berry survives. (Spoiler Alert: The berry survived! I ate it! It was sweet and juicy! See picture….
A few days later…I came out to another garden massacre. Many of my little green tomato globes were missing. Again, they were snapped off the stalks. But this time, it was too high up to be the bunnies. Now I’m thinking the deer are the culprits. I decided to Google ways to keep the animals away, but a few factors kept me from using what I found….lack of space, funds and just pure laziness. I decided to let the bunnies have the strawberries and chalk it up to a lesson learned. If I decide to plant them again next year, I will do so in a pot and bring them inside at night. For the tomatoes, what I did was drive a few stakes into the ground and tie up the stalks so that the tomatoes were harder to get to. This seemed to work (or the deer moved on) and my tomatoes started to grow.
Fast forward a few weeks….Because I only put in one plant, the tomatoes were growing at a rate that was perfect for me. Every weekend in August, I was able to harvest a couple of handfuls to use in our weekend salads. I even had enough to share a few with my neighbor who gave up the dirt patch for me. It is now the end of September and I am still getting a handful of tomatoes every weekend. If I can keep this going until the frost sets in, I figure I will have saved myself over $80 in tomatoes this season.
Next year, I will plant earlier and maybe put in two plants!
How to Roast Cherry Tomatoes
Preheat oven to 450°. Toss cherry tomatoes with thyme and oil on a rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Roast, tossing once, until tomatoes are blistered and beginning to burst, 20–25 minutes. Let cool.
What do I do with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes?
Roasting tomatoes enhances their natural sweetness, making them even more delicious. A few of the uses are:
- Crepes – melted brie cheese topped with warm roasted cherry tomatoes and frisée inside a fresh crepe.
- Risotto – add a handful to your favorite risotto recipe.
- Hummus – puree a handful to add to your favorite hummus recipe to make roasted tomato hummus.
- Crackers – add a dollop of soft cream cheese and top with the roasted cherry tomato.
Click here to see my recipe for Tomato Cucumber Salad!
