I planted 24 tomato plants this year. I live alone. Any reasonable gardener will tell you that one person needs, at most, three plants. Probably fewer. Whatever. I like varieties of tomatoes, and so I’ve got four each of cherry, roma, big yellow, and an Amish heirloom. Those Amish know how to breed a tomato, too. But the cherries. Oh, the cherries. I planted a variety called “Sweet 1000s”. I’d assumed that the name was a marketing ploy, but it actually describes the nature and number of tomatoes produced. I’m glad I didn’t buy the “Sweet Millions”! On any average day, I’ve got at least a couple dozen fruit ripe and ready for eating. Half of those I’ll eat right off the vine, warm with sunshine. The other half I’ll bring inside to eat later. Lunches lately have been basmanti rice and cherry tomatoes, and it’s been heavenly. Sweet cherry tomatoes can fool you though. You have to be careful not to eat too many, else the tomato acid eat away at your stomach. Unless you’re my friend Kim, and then you’d wash a couple pints of fruit down with a few cans of Mountain Dew. The harvest has been so vast, and the fruit so tasty, that the horned worms have come to eat. And eat they have. They can strip a plant down faster than me with a set of shears. Out in New Mexico, the horned worms didn’t bother me. Here, I’ve got to be vigilant. Still, even after seeing damaged plants, it feels so nice to be out in the garden, tending to my crops. Here’s an article that explains why.