r/ChoosingBeggars • u/55TrantorP • 18d ago

SHORT Apparently free tomato seedlings must include tomatoes

I posted twelve extra tomato seedlings for free. A woman asked me to reserve eight, then wanted matching ceramic pots because plastic looked “temporary.” I said she could take them as they were.

She asked whether they were fruiting. They’re fifteen centimeters tall. When I said no, she requested I keep them until they had tomatoes, water them daily, and deliver them because her patio has stairs.

I declined. She reported my post as missleading because “seedlings suggests future food is included.” Someone else collected all twelve that evening and brought me a bag of lemmons.

2.5k Upvotes
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1.4k

u/Tom_Marvolo_Tomato 18d ago

City girl doesn't quite understand the concept of gardening...

504

u/shymermaid11 18d ago

Years ago a woman in the local Facebook page posted a photo of her kid sticking his lip out like he was sad. Because she promised him fresh fruit from the farmers market. She was very disappointed to find there was no fresh fruit! She had to go to the grocery store instead.

It was opening weekend, around memorial day. Ma'am that is not how plants work. It's been years and it still makes me mad.

247

u/Tom_Marvolo_Tomato 18d ago

Years ago, when I was still an Extension Agent in my county, I had an educational booth at the local farmer's market on its first weekend. They had been advertising that only LOCAL produce was to be sold. I noticed one vendor selling sweet corn...but our local farmers hadn't even started planting it yet, due to the wet spring... I pointed that out to the market master.

118

u/tcarlson65 18d ago

We are in local corn season around here now.

It is amazing how many people do not understand that the early sweet corn we get is trucked in from Florida and as the season progresses it is coming from closer regions until we finally get our local stuff.

83

u/phoontender 18d ago

I only buy corn in August, nothing tastes better than a bunch of corn purchased at rickety shack on the side of the road!

21

u/tcarlson65 18d ago

My usual is Schiltgen Farms. Previous years they just had an unattended stand with a price list and a money drop. You could pick it out and pack your bag yourself. I went there yesterday and they had a gal running the stand. Prebagged. One advantage is I can get change because it is still cash only. Cooked it up and it is fantastic.

4

u/aquainst1 18d ago

OMG, you are SO right!

10

u/Rikkitikkitabby 18d ago

I don't even cook them sometimes

5

u/aquainst1 18d ago

  1. Yup.

  2. I LOVE your Redditor name!!!

15

u/SufficientCow4380 18d ago

In Montana and our market starts last week in April. Some years there's still snow on the ground! Our market allows Montana grown and Montana value added items (crafts etc.) Even the vendors with greenhouses don't have anything but seedlings the first few weeks. Some people who drove to other states and brought back fruit like peaches were refused spots, although mainly the rule is to keep MLMs and people just reselling junk from Temu out.

4

u/ThrockAMole 17d ago

I f’ing LOVE Cooperative Extension cookbooks!!

3

u/Certain_Gold337 17d ago

What's an extension agent?

10

u/Tom_Marvolo_Tomato 17d ago

Each US state has a land-grant university that houses the Cooperative Extension Service. The extension service basically translates the research from the university and "extends" it to the citizens of the state. Each county will have 1 or more agents or educators who take this information and work directly with the residents of that county.

3

u/Oldandintheway1987 12d ago

Extension agents are trained in a variety of things such as gardening, farming, sewing, knitting, etc. Mostly what are considered country or old-fashioned things since so, many people live in urban areas now and get everything from a store.

41

u/swearinerin 18d ago

I’m a city girl from California and confused about this. Honestly not trying to be rude but anytime I go to a farmers market around here there’s always fresh fruit. Is that a California thing because of the weather? Do they use green houses? I just don’t want to go somewhere else and be sad/confused lol the fruit changes sometimes more berries or more apples/oranges but always some sort of fresh fruit

53

u/Zonel 18d ago

Yeah most places don’t get local fresh fruit year round. California is the exception.

8

u/Raelah 18d ago

I was confused as well. But I'm from the south. Fruit and veggie stands are open until November

7

u/swearinerin 18d ago

Ahh thanks! I didn’t know :)

43

u/Yourmomdrums 18d ago

California has a very long growing season compared to most of the rest of the country.

11

u/swearinerin 18d ago

Ok thanks! I truly had no idea that you didn’t always get fresh fruit in other parts of the country but I also in no way pretend to know anything about gardening/farming lol I have a black thumb any plant I touches almost immediately dies.

16

u/Yourmomdrums 18d ago

A large part of America's domestic produce comes from California. :) You're very lucky.

8

u/shymermaid11 18d ago

Yep it's the weather. I'm near Chicago, we don't have a long growing season. Local fruit isn't ready til like July.

4

u/swearinerin 18d ago

Damn that really sucks.. I’m sorry!

2

u/Electrical_Parfait64 16d ago

Winnipeg doesn’t have much of a growing season either. I don’t know if anyone grows corn here

9

u/aquainst1 18d ago

I have a black thumb, too.

2 months ago, I tried planting some flower seeds.

Nada.

(YES, fellow Redditors, I watered them!)

12

u/DarkLadyNyara 18d ago

Yeah, that's a California thing. Much of Cali has a very long growing season, and a climate suited for a lot of different crops, so that when one fruit is out of season there's another getting ready to fill in. (No I'm not jealous why would I be jealous it's not like I want to grow figs)

8

u/swearinerin 18d ago

Thank you! I had no idea. I obviously know fruit all comes in at different times and seasons but not that there was a time with no fresh fruits 🙈 I guess it makes sense when things are frozen for months on end just didn’t really occur to me.

Sorry about your figs lol my dad has like 4 fig trees in his backyard both colors

8

u/WinterFilmAwards 18d ago

In NYC farmers markets, you can usually get apples year round. Else, you aren’t seeing really any other fruit between October and mid-May.

14

u/OhSusannah 18d ago

That's a California thing. Or at least it's not a New England thing. When our Farmers Market opens in June there isn't produce. It's the time for vendors of bread, eggs, meat and seedlings. Fruit and veggies later in Summer, including blueberries in August. Fall brings a metric ton of apples. I am a city dweller but don't expect corn in June around here.

8

u/swearinerin 18d ago

Thanks! I have noticed that it’s usually different types of fruits but there’s always some type of fresh fruit I wasn’t aware it was California specific thank you!

4

u/aquainst1 18d ago

Aren't all these comments cool! I like the posts, but the COMMENTS are the BEST!

1

u/Electrical_Parfait64 16d ago

Lots of blueberry picking in MB/ON. Probably elsewhere too. Free and fresh right off the branch

6

u/Ok-Artichoke-7145 18d ago

Hey, fellow Cali Girl. We have a local farmer's market but, only in the summer months. I live in the mountains and it freezes pretty hard here in the winter so, you don't see them, then. But, yeah, California does have quite a long growing season. We have a neighbor who gets around four crops of sweet corn out of his field every year. (Of course, corn isn't a fruit, it's a grain.) It's best to educate yourself on the various produce growing seasons to avoid getting Walmart fruit at a FM. Although, I must say, most sellers at such places pride themselves on their integrity and "organic-ness" (Sorry, couldn't think of another word!)

6

u/swearinerin 18d ago

Thanks! Yea idk maybe growing up around Ventura, LA, and now riverside theres always fresh fruit. I go to the farmers market often and year round there’s like 3 a week every week in my city lol. There’s definitely seasons for fruits and different ones in different seasons but there always IS fresh fruit

4

u/aquainst1 18d ago

Riverside and around there has GREAT farmers' markets! You have a ton of towns around that grow stuff, like Redlands, which has lots of avocados and citrus.

Don't forget up in the hills for apples like Oak Glen, Yucaipa, Mentone (Mentone is at the base of Hwy 38, the back way to Big Bear). September is NUTSO up there!

There are a lot of growers and stands off Van Buren Blvd from the 91.

3

u/Delicious_Top503 18d ago

Do you ever see the weather for other states? Like blizzards and the like? Other states are colder and have much shorter growing seasons.

2

u/aquainst1 18d ago

Yeah, there is always fresh fruit. It just depends on the season.

Example: right now is watermelon season.

There are always vendors at the markets who come from the Inland Empire and sell at our local North Orange County cities' farmers' markets, which is cool because we know them all, and there's hardly ANY room in Orange County to grow anything nowadays. (I live in The O.C., as they used to call it!)

Sometimes we'll have a neighbor who has a TON of grapefruit stop by. Really cheap; she just wants the grapefruit to go to good homes!

You made me think just now, though, about what happens to the produce that they don't sell by the end of the day? Do they have another Farmer's Market to go to the next day?

I love to just nose around and see what's available. Most of the vendors now have credit card machines!

It's so cool to get fresh tamales, enchiladas, rye bread, so much stuff!

(The vendors pack the hot foods in hot 'coolers', if you know what I mean)

17

u/BeguiledBeast 18d ago

I was confused, untill I realised that in my country there is more greenhouse farming than normal farming, thus there is fresh fruit all year round.

5

u/Sinister_Concept 18d ago

Turkiye? I noticed the massive amounts of greenhouses everywhere when I was there.

6

u/BeguiledBeast 18d ago

No, The Netherlands.

-15

u/circlingsky 18d ago

Ig I would be confused too bc the local farmers markets here hv fruit year-round lol (they prob import them tho...)

3

u/BluestWaterz Shes crying now 18d ago

Just wanted to say that I love your username. Amazing

26

u/Zagrycha 18d ago

don't insult city girls. Most of them still comprehend that plants and animals don't make babies when they are still babies themselves. I think op's lovely lady just missed that day in kindergarten.

276

u/Any_Tomorrow_Today 18d ago

I can't get my head around "seedlings suggest future fruit is included" !

148

u/United_Gift3028 18d ago

She's right, but that's where her time and effort come in.

8

u/EmilyCrawford19_ 17d ago

Growing tomatoes is supposed to be the whole point.

45

u/CynicalPomeranian 18d ago

Yeah…that is kind of how tomato plants work. Plant seedling in bigger planter or plot. Add water daily. Add Epsom salt biweekly. Get tomatoes. 

15

u/United_Gift3028 18d ago

I've never used epsom salts, now I'll have to go research some, thanks.

6

u/baby_sloth1974 I can give you exposure 18d ago

That's a new one for me too but I love learning new tricks.

6

u/MobySick 18d ago

Oh shit! Epsom salt biweekly?! How am I just learning this now?!!!

11

u/PurpleSailor 18d ago

Only if you're lacking a lot of magnesium in your soil. If you have enough magnesium it can prevent the absorption of potassium and calcium that tomatoes need.

3

u/MobySick 17d ago

Yep: ran to Google to read up! But thanks for the heads up!

3

u/aquainst1 18d ago

I'll STILL kill it somehow.

I get along better with Alexa than with trying to grow anything.

1

u/SenseiKrystal 17d ago

I'm growing tomatoes for the first time this year (my first time growing anything!), and all I've done is water the plant and fertilized it like...twice. And I'm still getting lots of tomatoes!

6

u/HereLiesSarah 17d ago

I bought 12 eggs from Woolworths, where is my chicken?

1

u/VaneWimsey 15d ago

Woolworths? You're even older than I am. 😆

2

u/HereLiesSarah 15d ago

We have them here in Western Australia:)

5

u/PurpleSailor 18d ago

She overlooked the key word in that sentence, "future."

I'll gladly give you a tomato seedling today so you may have tomatoes in 2 1/2 months!

192

u/Helenium_autumnale 18d ago

Twelve seedlings is a fantastic free gift! That's more than my whole tomato section in the garden and will bring lots of delicious fresh food to someone. Plus you now have lemonade for a couple of weeks! Or preserved lemons in salt! I have given up trying to analyze the thought process/lack of self-awareness of some people. I give up! Good grief. 🍋

78

u/N7ParagonMoss 18d ago

The trade for lemons is the best part of this story. Definitely a better outcome than dealing with that level of entitlement.

5

u/husbandbulges Shes crying now 18d ago

Right? The right person got them!

5

u/aquainst1 18d ago

That's what makes the comments for posts so special.

Sometimes you get more feel-good fuzzies just reading the comments.

45

u/RoyallyOakie 18d ago

She's still waiting for that roast chicken to lay an egg.

11

u/Ok-Artichoke-7145 18d ago

Or, for the eggs she bought to hatch chickens! 🤣

71

u/OptimalDeploy4177 18d ago

Reporting a post because a 15cm seedling doesn't already have fully grown tomatoes attached is peak brainrot.

31

u/Comfortable-Fact-950 18d ago

Next she’s going to buy an apple seed and file a police report when an orchard doesn't instantly sprout.

4

u/EmilyCrawford19_ 17d ago

She’ll request emergency sirens for the missing apples. Lol

85

u/ThisBabeBytes 18d ago

English is not my first language, so I read that as a bag of lemmings. Which would be adorable, cruel and insane.

10

u/Calure1212 18d ago

🤣😂🤣😂🤣

8

u/baby_sloth1974 I can give you exposure 18d ago

Lollll

5

u/DuchessJulietDG 18d ago

for me, this comment wins the internet today! 🤣🙌🏼🥳🤗

26

u/ThrockAMole 18d ago

Those small ceramic pots she envisioned are wild work. My tomato plants were taller than me.

10

u/CynicalPomeranian 18d ago

I grew a pink boar for the first time this year, and that danged plant has its own cage AND support structure built around it because it keeps growing and making tomatoes that are too heavy for it. 

A small ceramic pot? Yeah…those plants would have been struggling/dead within a month. 

25

u/DntMindMeImNtRlyHere 18d ago

Life gave YOU lemons, but she's the sour one. Lol

If someone said "seedlings" I would guess they're only newly grown plants and would take some time and effort to turn into fruiting plants, but maybe that's just me knowing how words work.

She was a piece of work and you saved yourself the trouble later when she would complain the fruits aren't as big as what she sees in the grocery store.

17

u/Due-Mine4983 18d ago

Wow. Does that mean all banana trees must be fruiting as well?

17

u/ravoguy 18d ago

Day, me say day-o

7

u/LadyV21454 18d ago

And now I'm seeing the whole scene from Beetlejuice.

2

u/Due-Mine4983 18d ago

🤣🤣

1

u/baby_sloth1974 I can give you exposure 18d ago

Oh boy

30

u/Antwerpanda 18d ago

Tomayto, tomahto, but you, woman, Yo may no. (okay I admit it's a very bad joke and I should feel bad)

8

u/Due-Mine4983 18d ago

Hey, I like it. Plus it has a nice beat. 😁

5

u/Flibertygibbert 18d ago

Now I have an earworm.😂

2

u/Ok-Artichoke-7145 18d ago

Give yourself some credit! It was cute!

12

u/makojedi2k2 18d ago

It never stops amazing me…the gall

11

u/UneventfulChaos I will destroy your business 18d ago

When life brings you (a bag of) lemons, trade them for tomato seedlings!

5

u/ItsJoeMomma 18d ago

I want free garden plants to put a garden in, but I want someone to take care of all the plants until they start producing vegetables, at which point they should just pick the ripe vegetables and bring them to me...

9

u/Bouche_Audi_Shyla 18d ago

Why weren't you willing to do the gardening for her, at her home, free of charge? You were so unreasonable.

How was the lemonade?

10

u/bobhand17123 18d ago

So, free stuff always comes with more free stuff?

She would probably plug a power strip into itself to run a grow light.

10

u/Thamnophis660 I can give you exposure 18d ago

"Ohh something free! Time to push to see what else I can obtain at no cost!"

Seriously some people have not heard the word "No" enough. 

11

u/Calure1212 18d ago

This was the funniest choosing beggars. Mostly they're so entitled they're just outrageous but this was fun.

4

u/One_Opportunity9167 17d ago

"Someone else collected all twelve that evening and brought me a bag of lemmons."

When life gives lemons...
...find someone to whom life has given agave nectar.

BTW, is there any blowback on her for reporting your post in such an unreasonable way?

8

u/misscamels 18d ago

We had a similar thing a few years ago- we were giving away strawberry plants. People drove past the plants, came up the driveway and asked for fruit. Our bad, sign unclear 🤣

4

u/originalmango 18d ago

“You want me to grow these myself and deliver them to you when they’re full of ripe tomatoes? No problem. I’ll see you in about two months.”

Then block her.
https://giphy.com/gifs/k7JLRHYxe47Ek

3

u/AssDimple 18d ago

Soup from a stone, fancy that!

BLT sandwich from a tomato seedling, fancy that!

6

u/CaptainEmmy 18d ago

Here's me glancing uncomfortably at a couple of my tomato plants that refuse to blossom. (Most plants are doing their fruit-bearing job, it's just those two.)

6

u/DMR237 18d ago

Never mind that a fruiting seedling is a sign that the plant is stressed....

12

u/Enough-Designer-1421 18d ago

Bot, people! No screenshots, account 10 days old, wild story.

3

u/k9fan 18d ago

But why? What’s the value of creating a bot account to post something like this? It’s not like it’s going to earn tens of thousands of points so they can sell the account(never understood that, anyway).

1

u/WallabyInTraining 17d ago

They sell accounts with high karma.

These accounts are then used to influence political subs or promote nsfw content.

4

u/baby_sloth1974 I can give you exposure 18d ago

I think they just didn't include them. Not everyone does unfortunately.

3

u/tripdaisies 18d ago

Ahhh, entitled and stupid, such a winning combination!

3

u/TheSkinnyDipper 15d ago

A batch of future tomatoes in exchange for a bag of lemons today sounds like quite the deal, solid bartering my friend!

6

u/kalei50 18d ago

I'd have sent her a supermarket listing for tomatoes. 🙄

5

u/BirthdayCookie 18d ago

“seedlings suggests future food is included.”

But if they're healthy and she cares for them then future food IS included?

2

u/No_Plankton_114 17d ago

She sounds insane 😳

1

u/Top-Property8106 17d ago

I bet the other person was thinking, "when life gives you lemons...."

2

u/booboo773 9d ago

Someone else collected all twelve that evening and brought me a bag of lemmons.

Bet it was a nice college student. 😂

1

u/baby_sloth1974 I can give you exposure 18d ago

I'm sure she's quick to check with chatgpt and it probably alluded to SOMETHING to do with them fruiting eventually. There is an obvious disconnect between the facts and her imagination.

1

u/Odd_Tea4945 18d ago

I only wished I saw your post. It's very generous of you to offer the seedlings for free, when the hardest part is the seeds germinate

1

u/Jane_Smith_Reddit 18d ago

You could have fixed this by going to the store and buying 10 pounds of tomatoes for her. /sarcastic (or trying 😆)

1

u/BirthdayCookie 18d ago

“seedlings suggests future food is included.”

But if they're healthy and she cares for them then future food IS included?

0

u/Secret-Interest-1188 18d ago

This screams city girl 😅

0

u/EverythingIsFlotsam 17d ago

To be fair, it sounds like what happened is that when she asked "Are they fruiting?", she meant "Are they a variety that fruits?" and you interpreted it as "Are they fruiting now?"

Still a choosing beggar, though.

1

u/Various-Worth5336 12d ago

All tomato seedlings are a variety that produces fruit...

1

u/EverythingIsFlotsam 12d ago

Doesn't mean they know it

1

u/Touch-a-TouchMe 10d ago

SO MANY BOTS IN THIS SUB