The price paid at the sidewalk can be zero while the tomato remains costly.
There is a container or bed, soil, compost, support, seed or start, water, fertility, pest loss, tools, and the time required to plant, tie, inspect, harvest, and carry produce forward. At Yonder, a proposed cedar planter on casters was estimated around $281 before soil and planting.
Public generosity depends on this hidden structure. A sign saying take what you need is the final component, not the first.
The free tomato may also be imperfect. It can split after rain, ripen while no one is watching, disappear before the intended recipient arrives, or cost more per fruit than a market tomato. Its value includes the public relationship, but that relationship should not be used to erase labor.
Accounting does not spoil generosity. It makes repetition possible. If the household knows the cost, watering burden, and actual harvest, it can decide whether to continue, change crops, simplify the container, invite help, or offer fewer things well.
Free describes the exchange at the point of taking. It does not describe the system that placed food within reach.
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gardening/yonder-sidewalk-planters.md