I pulled the cork on a California Cab yesterday morning. Then I had a big glass of red wine and some homegrown tomatoes for breakfast. I had never felt better.

The idea that red wine is good for you isn’t new. But scientists now think red wine is gushing from the fountain of youth. The new evidence suggests that resveratrol, a substance found in red wine, can stop cancer, halt Alzheimer’s and reverse the effects of aging. In clinical studies, lab mice fed resveratrol stayed healthy on a high fat diet, became better athletes, and had healthier hearts. The hitch is that the mice fed resveratrol in the study were given the equivalent of 35 bottles of wine a day. But other scientists claim that every glass of red wine we ingest actually makes a difference.

So don’t wait for happy hour. Have a glass now. And what goes better with red wine than homegrown tomatoes?

The other day, while I was shopping for produce at the HEB, I saw a sign under an empty bin that said the Roma tomatoes had been recalled. Health authorities suspect raw tomatoes are the cause of a rash of salmonella poisonings across the country. So far, there have been 15 cases reported in Harris County. Consumers are advised to buy raw tomatoes with intact stems or tomatoes sold on the vine--or to eat homegrown tomatoes.

I never had a lot of luck growing tomatoes at home--until this year. The truth is, I didn’t even plant tomatoes. But a big tomato bush sprouted up in my backyard anyway. The only logical explanation is that a bird perched in a tree above the spot took a shit that contained tomato seeds. So now I have a big tangle of free tomato vines. The tomatoes are small, but they taste great. And the vines are prolific--I haven’t bought a tomato all spring.

Who knew a lucky birdshit would get me through a salmonella outbreak? – Robb Walsh