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Better Boys, some Beefsteaks, and some Sweet Cherry tomatoes, so I bought one six-pack each. I had raised tomatoes in Saudi Arabia, not well mind you, and in an apartment, even. I knew about tomatoes. I didn't know how many tomatoes twenty-four tomato plants would produce, until that year. If you made the mistake of visiting my house that summer, you were required to leave with a sack of tomatoes. It was the rule and everyone abided by it.

Then there were the zucchinis. I still have the book, I think, titled "101 ways to use overripe zucchinis." They can be used for lots of things, like building a doghouse, or weighting down tarps from blowing away. I swear, some got three and four feet long and almost a foot acrossalmost, it's sort of like a fish story, they get bigger with the years.

The corn was finally ready to harvest, and I had a bumper crop. I know it was a bumper crop, because I had it piled up so high it rolled off the pile in the bed of my pickup truck, clear up to the bumper. We started blanching corn, but it was just too big a job to keep up with the volume, so we started filling bags without blanching, then we started just throwing them into the big, new chest freezer, I went to town and bought. By the time the corn was all picked, I was the proud owner of three freezers, all filled with vegetables, and lots of corn. On the second trip, the appliance store owner asked, "What you need a second freezer for?"

"Corn," I answered. He shook his head like he'd had the same problem, before. On the third trip, he asked, "A bumper crop of corn?" That's where I got the joke about the bumper.

Did you know that if you just throw an ear of corn into a freezer, husks, silk, worms and all, they thaw and clean much easier than if you try to do it all during the harvest? And, they taste great, really, I swear. I know, I was there. No, not the wormsthe corn.

I had nice, better managed but not any more enjoyed, gardens over the years, adding fruit trees, and berries, but I never had strawberries, except from the grocery store. Where was that darned cow when I was trying to get rid of some of that corn?

Learn more about this author, Will Kester.
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