The Juliet Jungle

You have seen a lot of photos of my gardens. I grow flowers and herbs which are lovely. The flowers are pretty and the fresh herbs are nice all summer. But there is another gardener, and another, more serious, garden around these parts. Yesterday, after the monsoons passed by, I went down to take some pictures. Later on in the summer things will look pretty gnarly down there, but for now, with all the rain we have had, it is lush and gorgeous. I will be back over the next couple days to add more veggie garden posts, but we will start out with one of my personal, all time, top of the pops, favorite things that Larry grows in his garden.

Here is it – the Juliet Jungle.Juliets are grape tomatoes. You can buy grape tomatoes in the store just about all year and in the winter, my pathetic little grape tomato loving heart does prompt me to buy them. They aren’t bad really and compared to the tomatoes you could get in the store in the winter just 10 years ago, they are amazing. Those are usually a variety called “Santa Sweets”. Santas are fast growers and the tomatoes hold up well under shipping, which why commercial growers use them. But Santas are to Juliets as Dom Perignon is to Mumm’s – there is just no comparison. Not that I have ever had any Dom Perignon, but I hear tell it is really good. I have had a fair amount of Mumm’s though and it has a nice reliable decent flavor, just like the Santas. But if I ever win the Nobel Peace Prize or a Pulitzer, I am definitely having some Dom Perignon to celebrate. And some Juliet grape tomatoes.The plants on which Juliets grow are enormous and this year, Larry decided to not even try to contain them with cages or stakes. He just let them run riot all over a big space in the middle of the garden.In August, when you come to visit, we will fill the trunk of your car with Juliets [after the filling the back seat with zucchini] because once they start coming, they don’t stop. We eat and give away, literally, bushels of them. I make tomato sauce out of buckets more. Riley even eats them if we don’t keep an eye on him, stealing them any time he thinks no one is watching.

It won’t be long now. These little beauties will start turning into jewels worthy of adoration. Brief adoration, right before I pop them in my mouth.And, as Mark, the World’s Most Fabulous Grandson will tell you, Grandpa’s grape tomatoes make you very very strong.