LUST

 13, 2013

The way I feel about tomatoes is IMMORAL: I lust after them. I am ADDICTED to them.  I have had enablers all my life: Mother always allowed me to have the FIRST tomato of the season; my brother Norman would literally share his FIRST tomato of the season with me--by cutting it in two-- and, of course, Gerald presents me the first tomato from the garden. I am indeed fortunate to have friends who also feed my addiction.  As I say, "I never met a tomato I didn't like.",  but the lovely Rutgers is my favorite.  This season has been splendid with Gerald, family, and friends enabling my addiction. 

I want the tomatoes HOT from the garden.  I will wash off the dirt and grab the salt shaker and devour them.  I have been known to eat only tomatoes instead of having meals.

Tomatoes are indigenous to the New World; Aztecs cultivated and ate them. When the Spaniards took them to Europe in the sixteenth century, many thought they were poisonous. Tomatoes are in the same family as tobacco and the deadly Mandrake.

Some thought tomatoes were an aphrodisiac.The French named them pommes d'amour--LOVE APPLES--and the French are always so succinct because I LOVE tomatoes.

Oh, sadly, the season will soon be over and I will be cursing those PLASTIC tomatoes in the grocery.