Hello. I'm still here. This week has been very busy and will get busier still. Between yard work and errands, Rick and I have been getting ready for the Cheat Race which is a downriver kayaking race that Rick organizes and runs every year. I help but don't do nearly as much as he does! The race is tomorrow and then things should slow down around here. This will be my third year helping out; here's 2007 and 2008.
But let's talk about something else today.
Look at this little guy. He's a baby San Marzano tomato plant. I've got a good many more too!
I have an 'interesting' story about how I got the seeds for these guys.
A few months ago, I decided if I was going to grow tomatoes this year I was going to grow the only ones that I like to use for sauce: San Marzano Tomatoes. It was a wise decision because a can of these imported tomatoes cost up to $5.00 and I thought if I can grow my own then perhaps--just maybe--I can grow enough for canning for the entire year? Please?
I had no luck finding the seeds at any of the local nurseries and I turned to the Internet. I found a place online that sells the imported canned tomatoes by the case AND the seeds. The website was more than a little sketchy--it was downright suspicious! I was hesitant to order online and I decided to call the number they had listed.
It was a strange number; it didn't seem at all like a telephone number that was in the U.S. but now that 1-800 numbers have branched out to other numbers I figured this was probably the same. I called about 1 pm. No one answered and I got a barely understandable recording. They were closed, the heavily Italian accented voice informed me. Ooops did I just call Italy? I shuddered to think of the rates for that phone call.
I hung up the phone and poked around their website some more. I found out that they were an import company located in New Jersey. There was no reason they shouldn't be open! Then, I started thinking of the Sopranos that Rick and I have just spent the last year watching the entire series watching and wondered if I had just phoned some Mafia front that wasn't really selling imported tomatoes and seeds at all.
Suddenly the phone rang. It was that number I had just called! There was no way I was NOT going to answer a phone call from the Mafia. It might make them even angrier! Hesitatingly, I answered it.
'Hellooo? Did you just call here?' is what came over the line in accented English.
Agh! It was the Mafia! was all I could think. Completely freaked out, I told the man why I had called.
And ordered the San Marzano tomato seeds.
And gave him my credit card information.
And wondered if this was all a scam to get my credit card numbers.
And wished I still had my very Italian maiden name so that perhaps he wouldn't screw over 'one of his own.'
And then I waited and hoped for 10 days that mysterious charges wouldn't suddenly start appearing on my credit card.
They did not.
My San Marzano seeds arrived with a very nice handwritten thank you note. A few weeks later they were sprouting and now they are outside in my garden bed. All of that silly concern for nothing! If I haven't told you already, I'll tell you now. I have a VERY overactive imagination.
I'm still watching my credit card statements.
