CORNELIUS – Seven-year-old Berea Gallagher is proud of the family’s first tomato of the season – a pink Brandywine – and “the biggest tomato we have ever seen,” according to her mother, Amy. Berea gets help from brother, Benjamin, 5, and moral support from 4-month-old Joel. Amy and her husband, Matthew, have dabbled at gardening since buying their house in Oakhurst in 2000. But in 2008, “we added a raised bed along the side of our home in the sunny side of the house and since then have had a larger garden and have been able to expand our plantings,” Amy said in an email. “We had a spring garden with lettuces, beets, smokin’ hot radishes, potatoes and red and yellow onions,  though our favorite was sugar snap peas. Our summer garden includes Japanese eggplants, jalapenos, yellow cherry tomatoes, pink Brandywine heirloom tomatoes, baking pumpkins, green and black beans, red peppers, cucumbers, Yukon gold potatoes, Roma tomatoes, and an assortment of herbs.

“We have had so much of a harvest that we have shared with family, friends and neighbors, made salsa, our first pickles and tried freezing some beans and tomatoes.”