Our Neighbor’s Little Tomatoes

An update from last summer until now! 🍅

Our neighbor has tomatoes — lots of them.They’re the miniature variety – a little smaller than a golf ball called cherry tomatoes. She lives 2 doors down from our home. Every 2 or 3 days she’s at our front door offering another plastic sandwich bag full of fresh-picked cherry tomatoes. She’s a sweet, and petite, elderly lady. We go out of our way to avoid even hinting that we are less than appreciative of her thoughtfulness and generosity, but that’s becoming more difficult every time the doorbell rings.

What are we going to do with all these tomatoes? 

So far, we’ve used them in a mix of sautéed vegetables. There’s a large container of chilled mixed vegetables sitting in the fridge that we’re trying to work into our meal plan. My wife has used them in her chicken soup. Today, my wifewill attempt to make her tomato sauce from scratch using as many little tomatoes as possible. 

We’re trying to keep up!

We’ve taken additional defensive measures as well. The doorbell is now disconnected. We’ve installed a sensor which turns off the interior lights and locks the door when someone reaches the front stoop.

However, as I write, there’s another sandwich bag full sitting on the counter waiting to be consumed. Having reached something of an impasse on how to use the excess of tomatoes, I turned to the Oracle, the source of all we need to know —- the Internet. It gave me 32,200,000 “results” in response to this query —- “uses for cherry tomatoes” in just .95 seconds. I chose the site at the top of the list and found all I need to know. I’ll check out the other 32,199,999 later if necessary. 

On the positive side I found 3 “results” offering103 recipes using cherry tomatoes. This should prevent the need to dispose of the tomatoes. My wife will be busy. 

On the negative side, to my shock and dismay, I also found that these little tomatoes, conceivably, can kill you. 

Solanine poisoning is primarily displayed by gastrointestinal and neurological disorders. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, burning of the throat, cardiac dysrhythmia, nightmares, headache, dizziness, itching, eczema, thyroid problems, and inflammation and pain in the joints. In more severe cases, hallucinations, loss of sensation, paralysis, fever, jaundice, dilated pupils, hypothermia, and death have been reported.[2][3][4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanine

If I wanted to create a panic over the threat of death-by-tomato, I wouldn’t mention that the probability of it happening is miniscule. There are documented instances of death-by-potato — yes, the ubiquitous potato —- due to solanine, but not tomatoes. 

We’re not going to tell our dear neighbor about solanine. She would worry about it and feel just terrible.

We’re going to consume her little tomatoes in moderation using the 103 recipes found on the internet. 

Right now, though, we look forward to the end of the little tomato growing season.