The Thrill of the Harvest

I have never had a green thumb—not leafy green or grass green or even the palest shade of celadon. I am the "kiss of death" to houseplants. I forget to water the geraniums in my window boxes. And gardening? Well, let's just say I'm a s-l-o-w learner...it took me about thirty years of homemaking to become interested in vegetable gardening.

(As an aside...my father has a very green thumb. For years when I was growing up, he had a wonderfully diverse arrangement of plants in front of our dining room window—everything from several varieties of cacti to a miniature orange tree! And our yard...well, let's just say that it was one of the beautiful spots in our neighborhood.)

I am delighted that eight-year-old Bekah is interested in growing things. For the past couple of years, she has had her own container garden on the deck planted with cherry tomatoes. And earlier this spring, she asked her dad if she could plant carrots in one of the raised beds.

Here are a couple of pictures of Bekah with this year's firstfruits. What you can't see in the pictures is her sharp intake of breath when she discovered that several of her tomatoes had turned a very lovely shade of red.