no tomatoes for you

    There was the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld - "No soup for you"  and this season, I must be the tomato Nazi.  I cannot give in.  January arrived and so did the dozens of seed catalogues who have me on their mailing lists.  I love this time - so cold and snowy outside, but daydreams of harvest time rolling around in my head.
    Every year I try something new, something I  have not grown before.  Last season was tomatillos - pineapple tomatillos, too be precise.  The verdict was: They are WONDERFUL!  So easy to grow and very prolific.  I love crops I can eat straight from the plant, as I am weeding.  However, last year, for the second year in a row, my tomato plants succumbed to the late season blight.  So this year,  in hope of freeing the garden from it, I am bypassing the tomato sections of the catalogues.  I hope a season without them will mean next year will be better.
  So this season I will be focussing on greens - lettuces, spinach and chard - and trying kale for the first time.  I plan on beets, because, well, I like beets! They also make some lovely dye.   We  will have the requisite pole beans and zucchini, but perhaps we will skip the gigantic space eating winter squashes.  I may tuck in some amaranth, as it is so lovely, and finally cucumbers.  But, no tomatoes for me...