Hey y’all. Moe here. I don’t know how you feel about homegrown tomatoes, but I think the late Lewis Grizzard said it best when he wrote, “It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”
Popping a fresh, homegrown, ripe tomato in my mouth puts an instant smile on my face! There’s just nothing else like it. As a kid raised on delicious, homegrown Sand Mountain tomatoes from my Dad’s garden, I’ve become quite the tomato snob. Those pale imitations in grocery stores just don’t cut it. If you know, you know.
Growing up in Northwest Georgia, my Daddy always had a large summer garden. I don’t know if he was just a natural at gardening or if it was that fantastic sandy soil on the mountain, but Dad was a regular “Mr. McGregor” when it came to growing a bountiful garden. (If you don’t recognize the reference to Beatrix Potter’s storybook “Peter Rabbit” you can’t be my friend. Just kidding.)
Fields of corn, watermelon, okra, squash, you name it, my Daddy could grow it. He was known ‘round these parts for his watermelons which were record-breaking in size and flavor. I remember one year he grew a watermelon to somewhere around 50 pounds. Everyone thought it would be tough and overripe inside but when he cut it, that was the best melon we’d ever tasted!
But back to tomatoes, Daddy would plant so many tomato plants that he and Mama had a hard time getting shed of them all. (For those not from the south, when you get “shed” of something, it means you get rid of it. Stay tuned to this blog for more learnin’ on how we southerners talk.) Since Mama and Daddy grew up during the great depression, they despised letting anything go to waste. They’d take basketfuls of tomatoes to work with them and give them away to the city folk in nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee. They’d take ‘em to church and hand them out to anyone that would take them. We ate them every way we could think of you could eat a tomato. On sandwiches, with cottage cheese, stuffed with tuna salad, chopped up and served with cucumbers in Italian dressing, or just sliced up and served with supper. Tomatoes were literally over every inch of our kitchen, on tables outside and everywhere else you looked during the summer months. One summer, my brother and I even had the chance to sell Daddy’s “maters” at the Chattanooga Farmers Market. The Sand Mountain label attracted buyers like bees to honey, teaching us a valuable lesson about capitalism, courtesy of our clever Dad.
Just curious, have you ever gone out to the garden and picked a ripe tomato, wiped it off and commenced to eating it like an apple? (“Commenced to” means you started to do something.) If you haven’t ever tried that, I highly suggest that you do. That experience brings Lewis Grizzard’s quote to life in a whole new way.
This year, our friends Steve and Melanie shared their garden cucumbers and tomatoes with us when their garden supplied more than they could use so it was time to get busy! Mama used to say, “The garden don’t wait” and I knew she and Daddy wouldn’t be happy looking from across the great divide and seeing me let even one of those maters or cucumbers go bad! So, blessed with these garden treasures, I did what any self-respecting southern woman in 2023 would do – I turned to Google for recipes. Cottage at the Crossroads had a scrumptious Cucumber Sweet Relish recipe that pairs perfectly in a potato salad, tuna salad or eaten with a simple bowl of pinto beans. Yum, yum! And for the tomatoes, I’ve been loyal to Mel’s Kitchen Café salsa recipe for years, but I decided to try something new this time. Delish Knowledge provided an easy and delightful salsa recipe that has now been added to my ever-growing recipe collection.
Now when I say Steve “gifted” us with tomatoes, let me tell y’all, it was a spectacular sight. Two 5-gallon buckets brimming with the most beautiful tomatoes I’ve ever seen. Salsa making was on the agenda, ensuring we’d be well-stocked for the winter. With our family’s love for Mexican food, Steve’s delivery was right on time. I didn’t even mind staying up to 2 a.m. on a work night to get it all done! Just when I thought the tomato bonanza was over, Steve surprised us with another batch. This time, I shared the bounty with Deb and we both whipped up some tomato sauce and refreshing tomato juice, preserving all of this by using the hot water bath method for canning. Almanac has a great tutorial on this method if you’d like to learn how.
Have you ever tried your hand at making homemade tomato sauce? Trust me, it’s easy! Messy, but easy. I don’t know if you realize this, but when you replace a can of tomato sauce from the store with a can of homemade tomato sauce, you can quickly tell the difference. The recipe you’re making automatically goes way up on the yumo-meter! I tested my theory out just this week when Deb and I made our Sloppy Joes. Y’all have got to try this recipe and if you do, you’ll never use those store-bought alternatives again.
Listen to me just ramblin’ on about tomatoes! Let me wrap up by sharing Guy Clark’s wisdom in his song about homegrown tomatoes. He sings, “Only two things that money can’t buy and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” I’d like to add that you can’t buy your way to heaven either, but that’s a story for another day. We hope you can enjoy some homegrown tomatoes this summer, y’all.
Moe and Deb 
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