German Johnson Beginning

Today I started an illustration of German Johnson Tomato:

These are apparently good for canning, hence the jar.
Tonight is one of those dark and stormy nights and thinking of tomatoes and rain together reminds me of working on the farm at Dartmouth. We grew sungolds to sell to the cafeterias, at a little farm stand, and to the CSA, and we wanted to get the most of the yummiest tomatoes we could. That meant letting them stay on the vine until they were perfectly ripe. But then sometimes it would rain the night before we were going to harvest them and this would make the juiciest tomatoes swell and crack open, which meant they wouldn't last as long and that people would not think they were as pretty for purchasing. So, we would rush out before the rain and get all the ripe ones we could before they soaked up too much water. It made it kind of exciting. Although, harvesting tomatoes at any time is pretty exciting no matter what the weather! :)