The joke goes like this: If you have a backyard garden and do not grow tomatoes, there is a chance you could get deported. A home garden without a tomato plant in it is like a U.S. flag without stars or a football game without a ball. What is missing is what defines it.
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True-blue loyal citizen that I am, the four tomato plants in our back-of-the-garage plot and another three in large containers by the side of a fence take up much of the planting area this year. Cherry tomatoes, heirloom plants and a couple of old favorites are thriving. So are the peppers, cucumbers, pea, beans, zucchini, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
If we have too many plants for our 10-by-12 foot plot, it is the fault of seed catalogs that clog our mailbox at the turn of the year. These four-color books are the gardener’s narcotic, dazzling us with glossy green, red, yellow and purple fruit and vegetable harvests that can overwhelm the senses and freeze the brain. If one tomato plant is labeled “super sweet,” another is called “best tasting” and a third is described as the “biggest.” One can be severely tempted to plant one or two of each.
A friend mentioned his love for a specific heirloom tomato. Try it, he said. We quickly found it in the now well-worn pages of the catalog. We ordered a plant which, when it arrived, looked to be near death. A backup plant was found at a garden shop. Both were planted and now are now doing well.
We have a simple recipe for three-day refrigerator dill pickles. That is why three cucumber plants are now 4-5 inches high. Roasted Brussels sprouts are family favorite and broccoli is a staple on our table. If the garden section of the home improvement store provided us with six plants of each, why plant one when four will do.
There are a number of striking community gardens on vacant lots around town. The ones on Indianwood Drive, west of Orchard Drive, as well as those on Neola and Lester streets are impressive. Ours will not be that elaborate, but we plan on more than enough for us, allowing us to share with others and plan for next year once we get those magical catalogs.
Jet Foods redux
All things come to those who wait.
Maybe.
The huge trash bin that was once in front of the vacant store in Park Forest’s Orchard West Plaza is gone as is the ladder seen recently on the inside of the 35,000-square-foot space, but the building permit is still taped to the front door, underneath the round “Jet Foods” sign.
A new grocery store has been promised to Park Forest for nearly three years, a span which includes more than 1 1/2 years of pandemic delays. The 2018 Thanksgiving turkey giveaway was the last visible sign that village residents would soon get a nearby place to shop.
We banged on this empty kettle before when we discussed all those grocery stores in the village and how, one by one, they left. We recalled shopping at Jewel, Sterks, Rudy’s, Garafalo’s, Dominick’s, Aldi and a few others and of how their replacements failed us. We noted that providing tax revenue for other communities when we shop elsewhere does not help us, but we allowed that COVID-19 shoved everything under the table.
And we waited as we complained that the store would be open for the holiday but no one knew which celebration it would fall on.
This past May, the first Jet Foods store opened in Carol Stream and their four-page weekly ad can be seen on their website. If you click the “Locations” tab, you will see that a grand opening is planned for both Park Forest and Harvey on Aug. 1 of this year.
As of today, there 40 days until Aug. 1. We still wait.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
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