My favorite summer treat!

Since May I have been growing or "trying" to grow 2 tomato plants in the backyard. When my Pawpaw died several of us in the family took some of his potted tomato plants home to plant in the ground. He never got to plant them before he went into the hospital, so my Dad planted most of them at my grandmothers and each of us took a couple home. You see, most people knew my grandfather for having a very plentiful garden. One of his most prized vegetables or actually a fruit (which I learned recently) were his tomatoes. They were the best! I remember all of the times that he would cut them up for me and try to get me to eat them and he definitely got me hooked because to me there is nothing better than a fresh homegrown tomato! Pawpaws tomatoes had the best taste and can not be replicated. He created his own method of watering them by placing a PVC pipe down in the ground next to them so he could water them and it would go straight to the roots. I have learned so much about growing them such as pulling the suckers off so that you will have bigger tomatoes, and that the term "green thumb" comes from the fact that when you are pulling these suckers off you will literally have a "green thumb" and fingers and whatever else has touched the vine. It is actually very hard to get off. A couple of hand washings usually takes care of it.
I planted my tomatoes and gave them lots of tender loving care and was so excited when the first tomato blossomed. Then... nothing. My leaves started to curl and the plants looked pretty pitiful. I simply couldnt figure out why they were doing so poorly. I planted them with good soil, watered them, and fed them. I searched online to figure out what it was and they said it was something called "tomato leaf roll". Apparently it is caused by over watering, which makes sense because Brad planted a strip of sod right beside the plants and had been watering it alot plus all of the watering I had been doing. My one tomato grew and grew and I pampered it as much as I could. Then came the day to finally pick it, it was big and red. I couldnt wait to eat it. I grabbed it off the vine, only to find that it had split and there were ants all over it. I was so upset that I threw it down and cried. Sounds pretty silly to most of you I know, but to me it meant that I had let my Pawpaw down and to be able to have some part of him after he was gone was very important to me. Plus, did I mention that I LOVE them! I pretty much gave up on the plants at that point. The leaves were still curled and no new tomatoes were appearing. More than a month went by of no watering and then they suddenly started to appear more healthy and a few green tomatoes came out to greet me! Last night I went out to check on them and I counted 92 on the vines! Yes, that is what I said...92 tomatoes on 2 plants and I had none just a few weeks ago. It is just incredible! Mom, told me that it must have broke Pawpaws heart when I cried so he made sure that I was blessed in the end. I plan on saving some of the seeds so that I can carry on these tomatoes that my Pawpaw started from his own hands. Here are some pictures of them. Not quite ready for picking, but it wont be long!