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.
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