You say tomato...

It finally happened. Our tomato plants have died.

Normally, this would be a happy occurrence. Tomato plants usually produce far more tomatoes than one family needs and are usually given away to others. It's just how it is.... in Nebraska.

You see, that wasn't the case for us this year. We began growing our little tomato plants last February-March. We watched them grow from seeds to little plants on our inside window sill. At the end of March, they were transplanted into a flower pot outside, where they continued to grow and grow. Dale and Parker eventually moved them to a spot they designated "garden" in our back yard where they watered them every day. During this time, we also purchased a few plants from the store, and put them in one of those upside down tomato planters that were supposed to be all the rage.

We waited and waited and waited for them to start producing. It took until October for us to finally see some fruit. The plants gradually filled with little green balls, with one or two turning red every few days, and we were excited that finally we'd have some home grown tomatoes. But alas, our luck was short lived.

It's dropped below freezing here about every night for the past week. I'm afraid those tiny green tomatoes that took so long to grow will never grow up into delicious red ones and I'll be forced to find some sort of recipe for green tomatoes so that Dale and Parker's gardening work doesn't go to waste. Boo.

I guess tomatoes hate this Alabama red dirt... or us... I'm not sure which.