It’s so hard to relive the past, even to go back a year. Look at the garden. Last year it was a phenomenal summer on the East Coast. Everyone’s gardens were brimming with produce. Many redefined generosity and contributed handsomely to other people’s dinner tables.

This year, not so much. When many people wanted to plant, we were in the midst of multiple, dark, dreary weeks of rain. Gardens finally went into the very wet soil, and shoots immediately responded. Not necessarily crops, but good looking vines gave definition to the landscape. Unfortunately when one expected to be having nightly bowls of gazpacho, the picking’s were slim. The weeks of rain gave way to a severe dry spell, and the confused crops bore little fruit, much of it not as handsome as in the past.

Whole gardens succumbed to a blight, and tomatoes bore little resemblance to last year’s beauties. Many people complained about the shortage of cucumbers, and the whole gazpacho plan seemed doomed. Farmers know what they need, and it is RAIN. Small growers, as in back yard aficionados, know what they need, and it is RAIN. One single downpour will not make the season a success, but it surpasses the days of expectation with severe warnings of what’s to come and nothing arrives. Watering cannot solve the dryness from the hot, humid days.

We’ve never had to purchase this many tomatoes before, but what would summer be without a thick, juicy, hot vine ripe beauty. Maybe they’ll still make it, but right now we are left with these pale, pathetic mutants bearing more green than lipstick red, and missing the critical taste component. Hard to call them tomatoes.

Time to buy more seeds and try for fall.