July 1st 2010    Tim Candler

    Not Cherry this year is very unlike last year's Not Cherry.   There will be those who might challenge my labeling skills, my ability to concentrate or offer other cruel and intolerant suggestions.

   I remember this Tomato's parent well.  Every time I passed the plant I remarked upon its name, and had its fruit been shriveled and dry I would still have called them wonderful.  And I remember the decision to take seed from the last of Not Cherry fruit, rather than following the good practice of taking seed from the first of a plant's fruit.  It was living on the edge, I suppose.  Driven by adventure.

   I  told myself then that this year Not Cherry was going to be extraordinary and as I told myself this I knew I was deceiving myself through that wishful-ness Not Cherry constantly demands of me.  Yet Not Cherry this year shines and wishful-ness has been granted.

    In another world there would be hymns as  pepper was milled, and people would bake white bread, and the swiftest of us would be sent to the grocery store for butter, eggs, bacon and a mild cheese. 

    In this world, however, there is a lingering doubt as memory casts its suspicious shadow.  But I will stand in sunshine and I will persevere with the conviction that I made no errors, that I followed the plan, and that indeed this Tomato came from the seeds of last year's Not Cherry......

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