Random Autumn Tomato Sightings in Portland, Oregon
By Tomato Queen
• Farmer’s Market
It’s October 20th, and pouring rain outside, and every vendor at the market–wild mushrooms, greens, goat cheese, lavender jam–has a tent sloughing off the buckets of rain but for one table: cherry tomatoes.
Abandoned, these tomatoes sit exposed to the near-freezing rain. There’s no vendor in sight.
They glow red and yellow and sit in sogged cartons that overflow with water. I stand transfixed, soaking wet, as if looking at exotic tomatoes growing in snow. Who would leave them so exposed, on such a day? Are they ruined? My hair and glasses and clothes are soaked through, and people walking past stare at me.
• Bit’s Neighbor’s Curio Farm
My friend Bit lives out in the Alberta neighborhood of NE Portland, where there are lots of houses with sprawling tiered gardens. Her next-door neighbor’s yard is covered over with deer, cupie dolls, flamingos, gnomes, and all manner of religious and woodland statuary.
And there, on a late October day, I spotted a nice harvest of ripe grape tomatoes hanging out with Mary and Santa and a giant ice cream cone. For your enjoyment, here are some photos.
