[purchase]
Where we live, Mother's Day weekend generally marks the first safe weekend for planting vegetables. Tomatoes are our cash crop. We are a Best Boy family, though we always try to mix in a couple other hybrids. Not being particularly sophisticated growers, we choose the additional plants based on how closely their names correspond to our own personal aspirations: Valiant. Celebrity. Jet Star. Early Girl. Beefy Boy. Globemaster! We may not get there, but maybe our tomatoes will.
Invariably, sometime during our weekend of planting, we play Guy Clark's "Homegrown Tomatoes." We hope Clark's rationale for writing the song will help us. He told No Depression magazine: "'Homegrown Tomatoes' came out because I was sitting there watching my tomato plants grow and I thought, 'These guys need a song.' Music is supposed to make plants grow."
