This morning I transplanted my Tomato seedlings. Mortgage Lifter, Ukranian Purple, Brandywine, Moonglow, Sungold, Dester, Nebraska Wedding, Redfield Beauty, Black from Tula, Paul Robeson, Amish Paste, Yellow Pear, Crynkovic, Dr Wyche’s Yellow, Sheboygan……Seedlings of all these varieties and more went into 4 inch pots where they will grow until June when I can plant them in the ground without worry about frost.
I love working with Tomato plants. I love their strange fragrance and their promise of sweet fruit. As I potted the baby plants, I thought about Tomato Flower Essence. Tomato Flowers make a powerful Flower Essence which clears our field like Hercules cleaning the Aegean stables. Tomato Flower Essence breaks loose and releases….well….literally our inner crap and sends it on its way. And what is this crap but illusions that we are not loved or lovable or connected with Divinity.
The first time I made Tomato Flower Essence I had this vague idea it was a cleanser. Rather nonchalantly, I gave a bit to a constipated friend who just happened to be there next to me. A couple of drops and this person had to race to the bathroom. Wow! Flower Essences can sometimes surprise us with their literal gifts! In years since I have seen it support a major clear out of emotional and mental stuck energies as well. When the cleanse is accomplished, light and love can pour into our systems and illuminate us the way we are meant to be illuminated.
We also have Cherry Tomato Flower Essences on our Additional Flower Essence list. Here is how we describe Cherry Tomato Flower Essence on this list: Cherry Tomato is a different sort of cleanser than full sized tomatoes- not so much one that might physically clear the system but one that helps us when we have chains, links, webbings, skeins, networks, knots, or anything tying us to situations or people that do not serve
us. It is great at untangling ego personality chains in particular.
I learned a lot about Tomatoes and Tomato energy in the summer of 1993. I’ve shared this story before, but it’s a story worth repeating. 1993 was the year when the gardens were open to visitors. The four of us gardeners who decided to open the gardens expected a few dozen friends to visit. Instead thousands came to call. The four of us depended on the guidance I got each day from Divinity to help us manage this unexpected and wild ride.
One of the most visceral experiences we had during our spring preparations had to do with our Tomato plants. We had mapped out more than a dozen garden spaces, all with complicated mandalas of different plants. Each garden needed annual Flowers, herbs and vegetables and a lot of them. The farm greenhouse is 16′ X 8′ so we didn’t have room for all the plants we were growing. To handle this situation, we found various greenhouse-ish spaces for some of our plant babies. The Tomatoes went to a solarium at nearby Kimball Union Academy. This solarium space appeared to be sunny enough when we put the Tomato seedlings there in March, but as the trees began to get their leaves, the solarium became much too shady for the Tomatoes. When we went to get the Tomatoes in late May to put them in the cold frames at the farm, they were wispy four foot long plants. Each was limp, almost branchless and a very peculiar almost white green. They looked more like lifeless threads than actual plants. We were horrified. None of us had ever seen such unhealthy Tomatoes. In my daily guidance after we retrieved these sickly plants, this was what Divinity had to say about these Tomatoes:
Let us consider the nature of Tomatoes. They have a very robust energy. They bring vitality and pizazz to many dishes and most situations. It is no accident that women have been referred to, even if in a derogatory way, as Tomatoes. The heart of Tomatoes is a very strong life force and a ripe, visceral connection with the Earth. As a Flower Essence it is a cleansing Essence because it offers to blast the weak places in a system with its robust energy, almost hosing out what is not strong in favor of its own vital energy. This is the nature of Tomatoes. What was happening to your Tomatoes during their sojourn to the solarium? Tomatoes have this energy because they are connected to me. They are free to express themselves because I provide the life force energy for them to be their true selves. These Tomatoes were temporarily cut off from an appropriate connection with me. They did not get the light of the sun, my way to bring them my energy. They did not get the breeze, my way of continually whispering to them my love and guidance. They were sealed off from a complete connection with me. They would have died had they been sealed off entirely, but there was enough of a break in the flow to reveal to you what happens with my creations when they are unable to work with me moment to moment. All of this was a metaphor for you.
When you asked for volunteer plants to go to the solarium, the Tomatoes went in service to you, knowing that it would be a lesson in what happens when I am not with you every moment, when your ego illusions wrap around you and create separation. You are like those Tomatoes in the solarium. You are like the Tomatoes returning to the light of a greenhouse. You have all been cut off from everything I can give you. You have received enough to live but not enough to be your true whole vibrant selves. I call you to let the example of the Tomatoes motivate you to open to a full connection with me, your source. You are a planet of Tomatoes in a dark airless solarium. The way out is there, and together we can find the vibrant wholeness which is your birthright and your destiny, but only together.
This experience with our Tomatoes shook us deeply. First there was our regret about how we had neglected these plants. Then there was the stark moment of truth when we were told we were like these Tomatoes. It was shocking to look at these sickly plants and take this truth to heart. The experience motivated me to try much harder to stay connected moment to moment to Divinity.
A week or two later, we planted these strange creatures in the gardens by laying flat the entire four foot branch on the dirt then covering the whole plant with soil with only the last tiny bit of sickly leaves above ground. We had no idea if we would have a single Tomato to offer at our vegetable stand. We tenderly nursed these sad plants, wondering if our ministrations would be enough. In the precious sun, they found vigorous health and beauty. We were astounded. The Tomatoes’ recovery was a constant reminder we too could find this life giving connection to source. Along with a rainbow of Tomatoes, the tale of the Tomatoes became one of the stories we shared with visitors.
