pineapple sky 2004~Sep elms marking time flying in rhubarb domadoes

Sep 26, 2004 ....the latest domadoes I was duly overwhelmed by my cherry tomato crop, having planted it and then buzzed off on vacation. I knew the domadoes (Tr., joc.) were in need of physical supports, but they ran away growth-wise in the ten days of July that we were away. Consequently, about half of the crop was lost to ground-borne critters (Tex., "creatures"), like slugs. I am told that slugs can be controlled by placing saucers of beer near afflicted plants. This seems to me to be a rather dubious use of our national resources, and likely to be subject to quick constraints by your ten-cent municipal regulators with million-dollar budgets; but I will try it next year. Even so, I was giving away cherry tomatoes, and they are still coming, here at the end of Sept. These cherry fellows are a perfect round item less than an inch in diameter, and so sweet that they are more like a berry than a vegetable. I also planted Italian tomatoes, which came along modestly, but I actually haven't tasted one yet. In Italy, they chop the entire bush down and band them together in bunches that they sell by the road. Today, (26th of Sept, 84^F, perfect blue sky), a neighbour wrapping up his garden for the impending winter, gave me a Mexican tomato, of which hitherto I had never heard. The bush doesn't look or smell like a tomato plant, and it doesn't ripen red, more slight yellow. I haven't tasted the Mex tomato yet either - but for your interest, attached is a photo taken today of: a. cherry 'matoes, b. regular 'mato; c. two Italian 'matoes, firm and kind of pear-shaped; d. Mexican 'matoes. ~krm