First (Not Our) Garden Tomatoes

Dispatches
Written By dawnatella
Three large heirloom tomatoes ripening in a row on a white wooden windowsill inside a Greensboro home, looking out onto a sunny backyard with trees and a garden shed.

Tomatoes from my parents’ garden.

We went to my parents’ house today to pick up the truck. We needed to grab some landscaping timber for the ongoing project in the front yard. (We initially added to the existing rock border but have since decided to edge most of the front yard with timbers.) While we were there, we walked their garden rows, and dad picked tomatoes and yellow squash for us. Our tomatoes still aren’t tomato-ing, but Gibsonville is only a quick drive away.

The tomatoes are ripening on the windowsill for now. Soon they’ll be part of a tuna and tomato sandwich on toast, my new favorite lunch.

dawnatella

Dawn Shepherd is a writer, a professor emeritus of writing studies, and an enthusiastic amateur of many things. After stepping away from higher education in 2025 to pursue a cross-country van journey and travels through Spain, she is currently exploring the art of the deliberate return. Through dispatches, sketches, and snapshots, she documents the magic of everyday life. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she’s figuring it all out. Probably. Maybe.

https://thedawnatellaedit.com
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