The 101 Tomato
I had a meeting scheduled for this afternoon, but I ended up getting a call to postpone and reschedule. Not a big surprise, since meetings get rescheduled all the time - but this time, I think it was a blessing in disguise.
You see, today is May 1st, and I wasn't really looking forward to driving the streets with, oh, 300,000 to 500,000 people marching in support of immigrant rights. With my luck, I would've driven into the middle of the protest and ended up missing forever. Anyways, it's being rescheduled for later this week.
But this reminded me of the time I had a meeting at the same place as today's was supposed to be. I was driving on the 101 freeway transitioning to the 134, and as usual in Los Angeles, traffic was crawling. I was in the "fast" lane and on my left, I started looking at the concrete freeway divider - when it caught my eye. On the concrete barrier in the middle of the freeway on my left? There was a plant growing at the base of it. Which isn't too weird, since sometimes you'll see weeds or grasses somehow managing to grow on the freeway divider.
But this was no ordinary plant. It was a tomato plant - about two or three feet high. It had a handful of green tomatoes growing on it... and a few of them were RIPENING. I gawked at it for a second to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. How on EARTH did a tomato plant get planted in the middle of the 101 freeway? I suddenly imagined that it must've been caused by some awful freeway accident, maybe involving a mobile tomato seed delivery truck, a Sparkletts water delivery truck, and a semi-truck hauling manure fertilizer.
I suppose it really says something about the power of nature that it can grow in the most inhospitable of places, like the 101 freeway. But I wonder if a freeway tomato tastes any different than a regular garden tomato?
A few days later, I drove that way again and the tomato plant was gone. I guess it'd attracted attention and a crew from CalTrans cleaned up the freeway and chopped the plant down.
But I like to think that somewhere there's a CalTrans worker who saved the tomatoes - and is one of the few people on earth to know what a freeway tomato tastes like.
You see, today is May 1st, and I wasn't really looking forward to driving the streets with, oh, 300,000 to 500,000 people marching in support of immigrant rights. With my luck, I would've driven into the middle of the protest and ended up missing forever. Anyways, it's being rescheduled for later this week.
But this reminded me of the time I had a meeting at the same place as today's was supposed to be. I was driving on the 101 freeway transitioning to the 134, and as usual in Los Angeles, traffic was crawling. I was in the "fast" lane and on my left, I started looking at the concrete freeway divider - when it caught my eye. On the concrete barrier in the middle of the freeway on my left? There was a plant growing at the base of it. Which isn't too weird, since sometimes you'll see weeds or grasses somehow managing to grow on the freeway divider.
But this was no ordinary plant. It was a tomato plant - about two or three feet high. It had a handful of green tomatoes growing on it... and a few of them were RIPENING. I gawked at it for a second to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. How on EARTH did a tomato plant get planted in the middle of the 101 freeway? I suddenly imagined that it must've been caused by some awful freeway accident, maybe involving a mobile tomato seed delivery truck, a Sparkletts water delivery truck, and a semi-truck hauling manure fertilizer.
I suppose it really says something about the power of nature that it can grow in the most inhospitable of places, like the 101 freeway. But I wonder if a freeway tomato tastes any different than a regular garden tomato?
A few days later, I drove that way again and the tomato plant was gone. I guess it'd attracted attention and a crew from CalTrans cleaned up the freeway and chopped the plant down.
But I like to think that somewhere there's a CalTrans worker who saved the tomatoes - and is one of the few people on earth to know what a freeway tomato tastes like.
posted by Eugene at 6:19 PM
2 Comments:
At the house I stay in in East LA, there's a whole tomato patch growing that was never planted in the backyard. What makes it even more confusing is that the yard is mostly concrete. Back in September when the tomatoes were ripe, they were everywhere. Now you can see the shrivelled fruit still hanging on the vines.
Naw man, it's the 210 tomatoes that REALLY taste good. Why do you think freeways get nicknames like the "Orange Crush" or the "Grapevine"? Gotta be the produce. ;)
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