LIFE CYCLE: TOMATO KING 2026

The life cycle of tomatoes starts with an idea:

‘Let’s do something with the space we’ve got.’

When the space includes a side yard with lots of sun?

Plant that tomato.

First time farmers are amazed at the growth from day to day, week to week.

It’s a seed, or a starter plant, then a tangled jungle of thick branches at the blink of an eye.

First the leaves and stems, then the flowers.

Who knew tomatoes have such pretty flowers?

You won’t find them in any produce aisle at any store.

You won’t see them unless you plant them yourself.

 

 

This life cycle shows the growing season in all its glory.

A fallow side yard turns into a bounty of vegetables.

Now it’s a celebration of life, new life, shared life.

 

Let The Sharing Begin

The pretty golden blossoms turn into small green balls, lots of small green balls.

So many that they might weigh down and break the branches they hang from.

Then what?

If you look closely you’ll find one red tomato to start the avalanche.

There it is hiding in the shade.

 

One thing is certain: you’ll never taste a tomato as good as the one you grow.

Home grown tomatoes will ruin your taste for mealy, hot house, store bought tomatoes, canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, everything with a tomato base.

Not that you’ll stop buying tomatoes, they just won’t stand up to your own.

 

Extra Tomato Please

Turns out the King and I were born the same year, so in celebration I took a shot for my own life cycle.

It’s been a few minutes since 1954.

No tomatoes from that time end up on any plate.

Mid-century tomato? Mid-century modern tomato?

The closet you’ll get are heirloom tomatoes.

 

They’re called heirlooms because their seeds predate the grim march of industrial hybridization. In the 20th century, many farmers began crossing tomato varieties to create hybrids that looked uniform, resisted disease, and could withstand long-haul shipping to retailers miles away. Taste was less of a priority.

Each spring Spencer Huey brings thousands of homegrown heirloom tomatoes to a parking lot in Berkeley, California, for a one-day community sale. “I grow 50 varieties of tomatoes and 2,500 plants,” says Huey, a cook at Chez Panisse and creator of the Tomato Club substack. “It’s a little crazy.”

 

It’s easy to go crazy with tomatoes.

‘Such little plants, we need more of them?’

Then more and more and more and more?

And more?

 

PS:

Baby boomers are all about the life cycle as we near the end of our own in the next few decades.

Everything is more precious, and we’re willing to defend the precious for the next generation.

Will millennials do the same for their kids? The good ones will.

If you keep up with social media, with twitter and Facebook, you might wonder where the good guys are?

Chances are they’re not on social media sucking up the vile vibe of ‘you suck and there’s nothing more to say.’

 

PSS:

Whether you suck or not is not one’s business but your own, and you probably don’t suck as much as you think, as you hear.

‘If they suck, and I’m worse than them, then I must suck’ is the seed of doubt planted in social media, along with everything else.

So don’t take it personally.

The people dealing the ‘you suck’ card are not worthy of your attention.

Tomatoes are more than worthy.

Keep your eye on the red ball.