The abundance of summer’s harvest often brings with it a dilemma: what to do with the overwhelming bounty of homegrown produce? If there’s one thing I can reliably expect every summer in New Hampshire, it’s the absurd volume of organic tomatoes being constantly pushed my way. Perhaps it’s because tomato seeds are so cheap and readily available, or maybe it’s the simple fact that they are so easy to grow that even I—someone who has somehow managed to kill a cactus, a goldfish, and all the free time I thought I had for writing a novel this summer—can successfully cultivate them. Every year, my mother is one of the biggest culprits, growing far too many for one single family to handle. She offers them generously to her co-workers, her pharmacist, our plumber, and I’m sure if she wasn’t so busy meticulously tending to them, she’d be shipping them across the entire country.
