It was a strange year in our vegetable garden. It didn’t help that my husband – the one who usually does the planting – broke his ankle in April, so planting was left to me. This is a task I’m completely capable of, having planted garden every year of my life from age 2 to age 18, and many years since. But that’s another story. Then there was the cold weather and the constant rain.

The result was extremes on both ends. Excellent string beans. And wilt that killed the melons, cucumbers and summer squash almost overnight. In the next rows, grew the tastiest sweet corn we’ve ever eaten. A real roller coaster ride, our garden.

But what we wait every year for – can hardly bear to live another day without – is tomatoes. They just did not mature. Even the cherry tomatoes held off giving us a tiny sweet taste until after August 1.

But they are here now and we are ecstatic. We eat bacon and tomato or peanut butter and tomato sandwiches several times a week. I cut up tomatoes as a side dish to scrambled eggs for breakfast. I canned 36 pints of salsa. Enough, we hope, to last two years. So far, I’ve canned two dozen quarts of tomatoes. We give tomatoes away.

Tomatoes are Iowa summer for us. And we are in heaven. The tomatoes are here at last!