While most of my tomatoes are gorgeous - I have about half a dozen that look like this - split skins. What I learned was that when tomatoes aren’t watered consistently, or when you have a lot of hot weather followed by heavy rains, you get these splits.
When the tomatoes are hot and dry their skin gets thicker and tougher. When a big rain hits or you get bored and decide to really *soak* the soil one day - the tomatoes absorb the extra water and swell - resulting in …

I’m single, so I never had to *clear* my decision to start my own business and quit my job with anyone. Not everyone is so lucky. If you’re married, in a relationship, living with parents or friends etc. - but especially if you’re married - making this leap into self-sufficiency can be scary. Good news for you!!!
My friend Patty Newbold just launched an online course on how to tell your spouse, partner, boyfriend that you’re going to make the entrepreneurial leap. Me? I wouldn’t do it without asking Patty’s …

Before my father died in 2006 I had lunch with him. I wanted to know a few things before he died and one of those things was what his first job was. He didn’t say anything about his job at Thom McAn, or any of the other jobs he held as an adult. He remembered picking blackberries at the age of five.
Blackberries grew wild in W. Virginia where he was born in the midst of the Great Depression. He was the oldest of his family of seven. At the …

Seth Godin’s writing prompt today was to write about something that happened on the day, date we were born. For me that’s October 15, 1955.
The Cotton Club - October 15, 1955
Some 55 plus years ago my mother was going into labor with me, her first child, just as the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, was headed into a club/dance hall in Lubbock, Texas called “The Cotton Club.” Elvis wasn’t the King then. He was just another happy-go-lucky singer booked at a small town club in West Texas.
The …

I’ve waited for months for my tomatoes to start ripening. I had one ripening a while back - but someone stole it. Yes. Tomato thieves in rural Virginia. Surprise surprise.
In a county where the business of meth labs, marijuana and prostitutes seem to thrive among the locals, I shouldn’t be so shocked.
Still, I guess you can’t get much lower than to stoop to stealing a person’s vegetables. It’s not like I have thousands of tomatoes. I have two plants with a couple dozen big tomatoes and 2-3 smaller cherry …