A long and twisted tale of tomatoes, thievery and a mother's love

Wow! Is that a dramatic title or what?!

Sit down, readers. Get comfortable, because I have a story for you. It's a story of fresh produce, thievery, shady (or at least confused) salespeople, finding that which is lost and having the courage to get it back. Mostly, it is about a mother's deep and abiding love for her child. And tomatoes. Two pounds of tomatoes.

This is the story of my trip to the farmer's market.


Only one vendor was selling tomatoes this week: $3/pound for regular, $4/pound for on-the-vine. As I was picking out three wonderful, perfectly ripe and non-bruised tomatoes (shown above), there was a Tomato-Taking Woman (I'll call her TTW) right next to me making a large purchase. The saleswoman weighed TTW's on-the-vine tomatoes and totalled her order. The saleswoman then weighed my regular tomatoes, gave me my total, and then took money from TTW for TTW's order. In the ten seconds it took me to take my wallet out of my purse, BAM! My tomatoes were gone.

I stood there, stunned, with my money in my hand. "Where are my tomatoes?"
At that moment, the saleswoman took my money for the now-gone tomatoes, and I noticed TTW was gone. I raised a ruckus, and we surmised that TTW had 'accidentally' taken my pound of delicious red fruit.

Since I had already given the saleswoman my money, she told me to pick out another pound of regular tomatoes. Sadly, the original tomatoes I picked out were the last of the good regular ones. I had to settle for bruised and somewhat icky fruits (see above).

I had the saleswoman weight the new tomatoes to make sure I was getting what I had already paid for. The totalled one pound, and she said to me, "That'll be $3.00."

Um, what? Excuse me? I ALREADY PAID FOR MY TOMATOES. THEY WERE STOLEN. YOU TOLD ME TO PICK OUT ANOTHER POUND.

Of course, I didn't say that to her. I had been in front of her the entire time, I was still holding the change from the original purchase in my hand, and there was no way I was paying again. So, I grabbed the bag, raised my eyebrow at her, and walked away.

The story doesn't end there. As I was walking back to work, I SAW TTW. I went right up to her, and explained that she had taken my tomatoes. TTW said no, that wasn't possible, so I pointed right to my tomatoes at the top of her bag. "I had regular tomatoes, and you had on-the-vine tomatoes."

Busted! TTW then insisted that the saleswoman must have given her tomatoes to someone else, and my tomatoes to her. "I really think you should check your bags, because I'm sure you have them."

TTW half-heartedly looked at her bags. "No, they're not here."

I raised my eyebrow. "Check again."

Lo and behold, with a deeper search (one that involved actually sticking her hand in the bags, rather than just peering into them) her tomatoes were there. Busted!

I took my original tomatoes from TTW. With tomato purchases #1 and #2 firmly in hand, I walked away. And why would I do all that for tomatoes, you ask? Here's why:

The Little Guy is currently on a tomato kick. He can eat an entire one in one sitting. And since that is the only fruit/veggie he is hooked on at the moment, it's important that I have them on hand to make sure he's getting some super healthy food in him.

The Little Guy just love his tomatoes. Six months ago, it was green beans. Then it was peas, then broccoli and cauliflower, then just broccoli. Now, he's on a tomato binge.

"TTW tried to take our tomatoes? Oh no! That's not nice."

"But you found her and got the tomatoes back. Way to go, Mom! I love tomatoes."

So that's my story of tomatoes, theft, and my unending, unmeasurable love for my child. My baby likes tomatoes, my baby will actually eat tomatoes, so my baby shall have tomatoes.

Plus, I like tomatoes, too. Especially on my hamburger. Can't eat a hamburger without tomatoes. Two slices, please.

Busted.