harvest satisfaction

I have been steadily harvesting fruit and vegetables for months now, each time with increased awe and wonder over the fact that this was MY creation.  How could something so tasty come from something so small as a seed?  I have harvested onions, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, and carrots, many times.  This is beautiful. Something so primordial and so right.
When I started this project, I planted only foods that I KNEW I liked: Large tomatoes, zucchini.. etc.  But later in the season, Bobby convinced me to plant foods that I wasn't necessarily crazy about, i.e. cherry sized tomatoes.  I have NEVER liked cherry tomatoes despite my everlasting love of their larger counterparts.  I've never liked the way they explode in your mouth, or how sour they sometimes were.   But plant them I did, in a mission to find something good about them.  I cared for these tomatoes as aphids and powdery mildew tried to kill them off. I watered, I fertilized, I pruned. Then came the day the first of the bunch ripened.  It was one little tiny runt of a thing, all lonely and sad.  Bobby ceremonially cut it in half and we each ate a half right there in the garden, we were desperate for any form of tomato as our larger tomatoes hadn't ripened yet. I bit, I chewed.... I nearly cried. It was wonderful!  If anything could convince me that this project of growing my own veggies for taste was a good idea, it was this moment.
Isn't it funny how your whole outlook on food changes when you have cultivated it yourself?  When you have watched this living thing sprout from seemingly nothing, carefully monitoring its progress, fighting off disease and pest with precision and care, you grow to love it. It doesn't just taste better because it doesn't have preservatives and hasn't been carted 2,000 miles to get to you... it tastes better because it was yours from start to finish.

There is nothing more beautiful or poetic than that.