The Very Almost Last of the Tomatoes

This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.

Wait, what?! Didn’t she say she was at the last of the tomatoes a month ago? I did! But Seda cleverly picked the green heirlooms and set them on trays to ripen indoors. I didn’t think it would happen. I’ve had them go bad like that before.

But this is our year. The green flushed to yellow, then red as temperatures outside dropped below freezing. I have never had a tomato from my garden in December before. I sit with awe and gratitude at the bounty! It makes me wonder how many nascent projects before me will come to fruition despite my lack of expectation.

Does my focus on enjoying the harvest daily read as encouragement to the living beings around me? When I put “What’s in Season?” into my first Newsletter back in June, I wondered what life would fill this space in December and January.

There is more to be harvested around us than we might imagine. What gifts are offered by your trees, bushes, and grasses? Are they a bounty for the eye, or have you set aside their fruits to be enjoyed in the cold months? Have you held a leaf, released by a branch overhead, and studied the nuances of color and patterns? How are you nourished by the earth around you today?