A real tomato!!!

Phase 3 of our back yard redo that I talked about here a couple weeks ago is going to be a kitchen garden in the same spot our potted tomatoes are now.  Hopefully that work will begin in the fall so it is ready for my inexpert attempts at planting next spring.  I've seen it said many times in article and I tend to believe it - kids eat more when they help grow or pick out the veggies.  My girls are pretty good (well Cate is great & Lucy is coming along) veggie & fruit eaters normally but they always eat with no hesitation if they helped make the food.  Our tomato plantings from this spring are a trial run to see if they will take to the new garden idea and so far so good!  One of the pots definitely has "blossom end rot" but fingers crossed we haven't seen it on the other plants - yet.  We got our first eatable tomato & cucumber this weekend!  I made the mistake of actually picking the cucumber before I realized I needed it to be picked by little hands since we only had one good tomato to pick.  So in order to avoid the "I wanted to do it" tears, I fudged a little and "put" the cucumber back (I set it in the pot and wrapped a vine around it - viola!). 
The girls were so excited to pick their veggies and ate every bit of them fresh with no dressing!

both girls ran to the plants when I told them one was ready to pick

Cate found it first and was showing Lucy (please ignore her funny pants in 95 degrees but she was so itchy I had to put steroid cream on her legs and didn't want her getting all over)

our first little yummy tomato!

Cate does the honor of picking it

she is proud of her little tomato

Lucy "picks" the first cucumber

she is proud of her little cuc too!

running up to show daddy!

"hello - hello - this is my cucumber phone"