Mo-matoes

Jeremy convinced Abby and Lydia that big girls like tomatoes (or "mo-matoes," as they pronounce it). Once they turned three, they believed they became big girls--and with a bit of coaxing, they tried tomatoes. Lo and behold, they like them! Abby converted first and reveled in her status as a "big girl" when Lydia, her older sister by nine minutes, wasn't one! But Lydia came 'round, too, and now they gobble as many of the Sweet One-hundred and Sungold cherry tomatoes as I'll let them. 

Thus far our tomato crop has been abundant. We've dealt with the pesky birds, of course, and lost many tomatoes to their destructiveness before Jeremy netted the front and back beds. They still get in and peck holes in some. But most ripen unscathed these days.

Sungold cherry tomatoes 

The girls love tomatoes on salads, in burritos, sliced up with their scrambled eggs . . . They will eat them in the house, and I'm pretty sure they'd eat them with a mouse! On a car, in a tree, they are so good, so good, you see! (Can you name that book?)

It's fun to see them enjoy our garden produce so much. Josiah likes picking tomatoes, but he eschews the idea of eating them. Jeremy had him taste one a couple weeks ago, and it was torture for Bud. (I admit I am not a tomato-lover myself, so I've never forced them on my kids. While I still don't like our tomatoes fresh and by themselves, I do love them roasted with fresh mozzerella and basil! The sungolds are lovely in a Caprese salad as well.)

Oh-so-good!

The kids' enthusiasm about the garden is fun to see. I'm glad to be supplying the girls with lots of tomatoes these days, though what we'll do in the tomato-barren months of fall and winter, I don't know!

They often compete for the cherry tomatoes 

Lydia on the left, Abby on the right 

These days I usually have to limit the girls' consumption of tomatoes. We had a few days when a combination of too many tomatoes and too much watermelon resulted in some unpleasantness in digestion and elimination, if you know what I mean.

Lydia didn't like the pulp that squirted out on her when she bit down on one 

Abby shows off a sungold 

All gone!