Sandwich Prep - Three Months In

Let me start by saying that at least I'm not trying to raise the wheat - or the eggs.

As you may remember, back in May I bought some very small tomato plants. They were adorable, but tiny - only about two or three inches tall. (I talked about them back in May.)

By the end of June when I next blogged about them, they'd grown to about a foot tall, and I was starting to get pretty excited. Patiently excited, but excited.

Since then, they've been growing quite well, but they didn't start flowering until fairly recently.

Here they are a couple of weeks ago - about 4 feet tall and as green as can be.

Although you can't tell, this one has even decided that it doesn't like its protective cage and has started to push through on one side. 

And then, suddenly, they started to show little pops of yellow!

Sorry for the huge photo, but it's the only way I could get the flowers to show up.

Last week, a friend came over to look at our eaves. (Well, he came over because we asked him to give us some home improvement help with our eaves. He didn't just wander over because he likes looking at eaves or something. He's not an eaves-stalker. I mean... at least as far as we know.)

I got way too giddy when I noticed these:

Those two tomatoes are probably about an inch across, each - I mean, the green from the flower is still at least twice as big as the tomato!

This one I almost didn't see. Can you see it right in the middle of the picture? The tomato is probably only about a half-inch in diameter, and the remains of the flower are now kind of brown and hanging off the side of it. 

This week, unfortunately, the weather has been a bit odd. We've had cool, rainy days (which are pretty much unheard of in late August in Minneapolis), and twice I've gone out to find the plants blown over. Yes - even with the tomato cages and chicken wire AND an added stake that they're tied to because they've gotten so tall.

Even so, when I went out today, to check out the tomatoes (almost exactly 3 months after planting them), I found that last week's inch-wide tomatoes are now probably 2 or 3 inches across.

Yeah... I almost dropped the camera while taking this one, so I apologize for the weird angle.

These two have kind of gone sideways - I think because the plant keeps wanting to tip over. But - look - they're so big compared to four days ago!

And the plants, themselves? They're now somewhere between 4 and 5 feet tall. Seriously. They come up to my shoulder, and I'm six feet tall.

Everyone say "hi" to Christopher - he's sitting in his office working, oblivious to me running around outside with my camera.

What's even better is that - though I'd be thrilled with 4 decent tomatoes - I'm still getting a bunch of flowers! Today I even found another tiny tomato!

I realize this is the very long game when it comes to sandwich making. But I have to admit that it's also getting pretty exciting.

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What's a food that you'd wait all summer for? Are you a home-grown beet fanatic? Do you pine for fresh-off-the-vine berries? Are you champing at the bit to pickle your own cucumbers? Let me know what your summer (food) thrill is, and maybe we can enjoy it together!