Now, I know you all think I'm a little nuts on the subject of tomatoes. But there's some reason behind it.

Consider: I went to the grocery store Saturday and I bought one tomato. Cost me $1.29. On my way home I stopped at Green Thumb Nursery and bought a Celebrity tomato plant for the one spot in my garden where the last OSH tomato plant died. Cost was $.97 and I'll get at least a dozen prime tomatoes from the one plant plus several more smaller ones as the season gets too hot. Add in the cost of the water as supplied by the Department of Water and Power (lovingly known as DWP) and growing your own is still the best way to go.

And I haven't even brought up the issue of taste. Those round red things in the store are hothouse grown in Canada and they taste like it. If I want real tomato flavor, I'll have to wait till July for the Early Girls. I think the heirloom tomato has a set on it, but won't know for sure for a couple more days.

My fixation on homegrown tomatoes also stems from 50 years ago when I had a substantial garden of my own. For the price of a few seeds and the water from our well, I had baskets of tomatoes, asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, raspberries, currants, okra, corn, blueberries and beans. Never forget the beans. Oh, yes, and carrots and radishes, too, though I never had much respect for them. They just grew in between other veggies. For free. Nature's bounty. And I guess that's why I am appalled at spending $1.29 of my hard-earned money for a single tomato. And why I grow my own.