Summer Tastes

It won’t be long. Nothing says summer quicker than the word “food.”  Not pre- packaged, chemical added food that’s been rurnt.

We are talking about FRESH, straight out of the garden with a stamp: “Made by God in the South.”

Daddy would take his hoe and make a trough. We would follow behind like ducklings, dropping seeds in the small ditch and kicking dirt over them. It seemed like an eternity before they would sprout through the dirt. Ask any Baby Boomer from Alabama, and they can give you vivid details about those “special garden days” with family. When you got old enough to either drive the tractor or run the Roto-tiller, you were viewed in a different light since you had ARRIVED..

This will probably stir some old- time memories, but I can remember having a feast in our back yard, with only a pocketknife and a shaker of salt. And of course, the bounty from the garden.

We would usually steal a washrag to wipe off the dirt. Washrags work better than washcloths. Never confuse the two.

My favorite “right from the vine” vegetable was tomatoes. Big Boy, Better Boy and Atkinson. We learned from Daddy in his biology class that tomatoes are a fruit, not vegetables. I have trouble putting them in the same category as apples and oranges.

A tomato, about the size of a tennis ball, fits the bill for me. Shine it up with the rag. Take a small bite and suck out some of the juice.  Add salt and enjoy.  I have had tomato drippings from my chin to my red-clay bare feet before.

If a fresh vine ripe tomato doesn’t cure what ails you, we will add you to the prayer list.

Many times, to add a little spice to my instant tomato feast, I would pull a banana pepper to gnaw on. I have found that banana peppers, planted near hot peppers, tend to crosspollinate (if that is a word.) In other words, the nanner pepper has a built in extra “kick” to it. Stay near the garden hose pepe, just in case.

If you wanted to make it a 3- course meal, pull a cucumber straight from the vine. Since they grow on a vine ON the dirt, it is important to use the rag to clean it. Take a pocket- knife and peel the cucumber.

This is one of my 2 favorites that needs pepper also. I have eaten many cucumbers by sprinkling salt on them and eating them like a popsicle.

Cucumbers cause burps. A burp in the garden is not actually a burp if there is no one there to hear it. So, burp away.

Even though it is not one of my favorites, I have pulled radishes from the ground, trimmed them and put salt on them. Have a dose of baking soda in warm water ready when you get to the house.  This will wash away the heartburn that is guaranteed to follow. To this day, when I see a radish, a think of Coach Ray Perkins at Alabama. When I put a new salad bar in Bryant Hall in 1984, I asked the players what they wanted on their salads. None of the players wanted radishes. I found out quickly, however, that Perkins did. I headed to Piggly Wiggly and got a whole bag, just for him.

When Daddy grew Vidalia onions in his garden, some of them were sweet enough to eat like an apple.

This didn’t happen that often.  We would eat them, sliced or chipped up. A Vidalia onion on anything puts that food in the “Food Hall of Fame.” If they put a Vidalia in hummus, I might be able to stomach the sand-like mixture. Unless I was in New Jersey.

To top off my “instant fresh feast,” I had to have dessert.

That was easy and quick.

Cantaloupes, slightly yellow near the stem, were ready to be pulled from the vine. Cut them in half.  Scrape out the pulp and seeds. Know that where those seeds land, there will probably be new cantaloupe vines growing before long.

To me, cantaloupe is the other vegetable that needs pepper to go along with the salt. When they are sweet, yet firm, they are close to perfect.

 If they are not picked at the right time, they become too mushy and taste like something that came from south Florida. Or Heaven forbids, from California.

 I’d rather starve.

I have saved the best for last: watermelons.

If there was a survey done among every 70- something year old Southern male, 95% would admit to eating a watermelon, right in the patch. The other 5% would be lying and probably moved up north where they don’t admit those sins. We forgive them anyhow.

I don’t know the anatomical insides of a watermelon, but I DO know where the heart is located. The very center has NO SEEDS and can be scooped out with your bare hands.

When we were in a patch full of watermelons, we became greedy. We would just drop one on the ground or on a rock to watch it bust (not burst.) Scoop out the heart with one hand and sprinkle salt on it with the other.

The crows would finish the leftovers.

If this ain’t heaven, you were at least among the stars.

Want to make this world a better place for our Grandkids?

 Take them to the garden, armed only with a pocketknife and a box of salt.

I guess in today’s “ultra-extra-got-to-be-squeaky-clean” environment, they should carry some hand sanitizer with them to the garden. It’s funny how we ALL survived to ripe old ages. The red clay had mystical medical properties.

Teach them the words to the old hymn: “For the Beauty of the Earth” as you snack. Those memories and soaked washrag will last much longer than any video game.

Just start singing the first words of “Summertime.”

Summertime and the living’s easy.

That’s why Eden was called a garden.