It's Friday evening....

"FRANKIE.....COME HERE....QUICK."

She dashes into the kitchen.

"WHAT?????" (She yells back.)

Me:  "Taste this."

Frankie looks at me as though I have finally gone mad.  I'm trying to coax her to taste a hunk of tomato.

Frankie: "It's a tomato, I know what a tomato tastes like."
Me: "No you don't.   Really, please taste this."

Frankie, takes the hunk from my hand and chews.


Frankie let's out a long, satisfying, "Woooooooah.  So...THAT'S what a real tomato tastes like.  Woooah."


I smile with great joy.  Yes, I have in my hand an honest to goodness tomato.  Not the leather bound kind with hollow spots where juice should be, and seeds stuck together as though they could not survive without each other and a kind of chemical smell and (sometimes) taste, too.  THIS IS an honest to goodness, soft skinned, full of juice, seeds swimming in it, vegetable smelling, tomato.  "Oh, thank you God."


Frankie and I are full of delight; I divide the tomato in half and we watch the juice of it spread across the kitchen counter.  She is amazed...has never seen anything like it and reaches for her half.

"Wait," I tell her "the best is yet to come."  I go to my condiment shelf and grab the salt shaker and pour salt all over both halves.  "Now, take another bite."

She does.  I wish I could adequately tell you the look that came over her face.  Pure joy, is what it was, I think maybe explorers got that look when they discovered new land.

By now juice is running down our hands and sneaking past our wrists.  Neither of us speak.  We just eat.
Bliss, bliss, bliss.

Why can't stores have these kinds of tomatoes all the time?  I look at the label to see where it is grown.  I suspect some country I have never even heard of.  The tag is very simple PU#3151...are you ready for this...I wasn't....PRODUCT OF USA.  Ohhhh, my goodness.  Thank you Safeway and whatever farmer grew these beautiful, round, juicy, soft-skinned produce.  I wish I had bought a dozen, as I doubt I will have another batch of tomatoes like this again in my lifetime.

Frankie and I are ecstatic and swear to make these tomatoes last by to doling them out on salads and sandwiches, in order to make them last as long as possible. However, I sense that is not going to work, because we devoured another one of them yesterday.

Shoot!