We didn’t plant any tomatoes this spring. However, we still reaped a huge harvest of cherry tomatoes. Last year, our chickens roamed the backyard freely. That meant that not many vegetables were able to grow without being scratched up by the hens. A few cherry tomato bushes did have the ability to fruit a decent harvest. Whatever we didn’t use, we fed to the chickens. I’m assuming the seeds they ate were later exposed of around the yard – if you know what I mean.
Fast forward a year to when the chickens are cooped up and those scattered tomato seeds had an opportunity to sprout and flourish.
Each day these girls would go out with their father to harvest any ripened tomatoes. Eliana was taught to look for the red ones while Isabelle picked any she could get a hold of.
Some days the harvest was so plentiful that my husband would have to use his shirt as a makeshift basket to hold them all. This girl quickly learned to imitate and began using the same method.
Whatever tomatoes were blemished with holes or spots were given to the chickens. The girls quickly picked up on this as well.
Eventually the tomato hedge wasn’t looking too great – we are thinking due to blight, leafhoppers and/or drought. These pictures were taken a little over a month ago so now the hedge is gone; but those tomatoes we fed to the chickens have sprouted into new seedlings.
This cycle fascinates me. Plus, I will always enjoy effortless gardening.
