While doingweed inspections last August , I notice a new industrial plant had popped up between the oregano and the St. Basil the Great . It had a cluster of telltale little chicken , Alexander Bell - shaped blossoms . Could it be … a love apple plant ? No . How could that be ? I had to tell my daughter about this .
Me : There ’s a love apple plant develop in the garden that I did n’t plant .
She : Are you sure you did n’t bury you planted it ?
Telltale yellow blossoms on a volunteer tomato plant.
Me : No ! I ’m not gaga . At least not yet .
I regret telling her about the time I throw down old maid seeds in the spring , forgot , and was utterly confounded later in the summer by a richness of young germinate works that I did n’t recognize . So , she could be forgive for thinking I was losing my psyche about a tomato plant that was probable , um , deposited by a critter .
Me : Must have been a squirrel or a hiss . Wonder what kind of tomatoes they ’ll be ? Beefsteak ? Cherry ? Oooh , San Marzano ? What should we call them ? the skinny - matoes ?
Fresh, green tomatoes grown late in the season.
She : Ew .
The whole affair was perplex . Squirrels usually will bite into a tomatothinking it ’s a nut and skewer it out . They ’re not the sharpest branchlet on the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . It ’s unlikely , therefore , that a squirrel made off with a neighbor ’s tomato and buried it in my garden . It ’s also unconvincing that a squirrel would have eaten said neighbor ’s tomato and defecated it out among the perennial . Thatleaves a doll as the probable culprit , and , er , evacuation as the likely mode of planting .
Either way , my adjunct gardener , whether furred or feathered , could practice a subscription to a teeny - tiny edition ofNorthern Gardener ® because the critter is a lousy vegetable grower . ( airplane propeller for locating the germ near culinary art - appropriate herbs , though . ) My surprise love apple was grow right under the drip melodic line ofmy fatal walnut tree diagram , which would be lethal for the plant .
Who does n’t bed a freebie ? I potted it up , incite it to a gay spot far from the walnut tree and began babying it .
A couple calendar week later on , again while doing sens patrol , I spottedanothertomato plant in a fishy bed beneath a crabapple Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Really , guys?This tardily in the time of year , the plant would require some super - enriched potting commixture to help it catch up to its sibling . I put the 2d skunk near the first and watched throughout September as each yellow flower became a small-scale green love apple . They appear to be grapeshot tomatoes , perfect to toss in a pan with olive fossil oil , ail and capersand drizzle over the homemade pasta I get the hang this summer . I ’ll never appear at weed reconnaissance mission the same again , and you should n’t either . Be alert — your neighbourhood ’s adjunct gardeners are meddlesome at oeuvre and , if we ’re observant , we might find that they ’ve left us a odorous , comestible gift .
Susan Barbieri is a St. Paul author and longtime diary keeper who has worked for a potpourri of local and national publications , including the St. Paul Pioneer Press , Minneapolis Star Tribune and Minnesota Monthly .
Featured look-alike : grapeshot tomatoes harvested in gloaming . All photos courtesy of Susan Barbieri .
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