I've been thinking a lot lately about the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. I've never been there, but I used to watch a Canadian TV show "Black Harbour," that I believe was set in Nova Scotia. That was really the only thing I had in common with Nova Scotia until this summer when I started growing a tomato variety called "Scotia."

Last winter when I was looking for fast-maturing tomato varieties, I found Scotia, which matured in as little as 60 days. This would be great because I could start the seeds in the greenhouse and have vine-ripened, certified organic tomatoes before anyone else at the market.

That worked well and Ilene and I were selling Scotia tomatoes about a month before any of the other vendors had tomatoes.

But herein lies the problem.

This tomato has been so prolific that I simply got tired of harvesting and in the past couple of weeks, I just let them ripen and fall on the ground because I can't even come close to keeping up. The grasshoppers can't even keep up with the bushels and bushels that are out there. Those will make great natural fertilizer.

And what makes this even more interesting, is I planted 56 Scotia plants on some of the poorest soil on the farm and I've got Scotia tomatoes coming out of my ears.

We've sold them, we've given some to charity, we've got a freezer full of them and the ground is covered with Scotia tomatoes.

True, they are smaller fruit than a normal slicer would be, but, there are so many of them, it's almost like a horror film or something. I'm hoping it freezes soon so these tomatoes will stop growing.

I've told people at the farmers' market that I should write a letter to the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and complain about this tomato because it makes me work so hard when I harvest. 

Truth is, we're growing this tomato again next year because it's such an early variety and because the customers tell me it is a great-tasting and excellent juicing tomato. But, I think I'll just grow one plant and maybe then I can keep up with harvesting this magic determinant variety.

Thanks Nova Scotia for developing such an outstanding, certified organic tomato.