It's Time...

Every Summer tomato-lovers everywhere wait for that first taste of vine ripened fruit. Whether it comes from your garden or you buy it at the Farmer's Market, the timetable is never certain. Something always interferes with each year's crop of tomatoes in Arkansas. Too much rain, not enough rain, too cool early on, too hot when the vines are setting blooms. We accept the reasons for the wait, but never give up.

Finally, that first garden ripe Big Boy makes it to the table. Sliced on a platter or added to a sandwich, it's a joy. You don't have to do a thing to the American Beauty, but drizzled with olive oil, dusted with coarse salt and fresh cracked pepper...it's almost too good.

In the kitchen of my childhood, the windowsills were lined with all shades of pink and red tomatoes ripening a little more each day. Pick it up and breathe in deeply the aroma of summer.

If you've never had a vine ripened tomato, you are thinking I've lost my mind about now! But if you set at Grandma's table... fried chicken, string beans, summer squash, fried okra, and cold sliced tomatoes, then you know it's more than eating just to get full. It's comfort and joy. Add a hot pan of cornbread and a glass of buttermilk and you are as close to Heaven as you can be on Earth!

* "Tomato Sandwich Spirituality" by Bro. Mel Williams of Watts Street Baptist Church, is a hilarious account of the connection of God and tomato sandwiches. Take the time to go and read and it will keep you smiling all day!

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/chapel-hill-news/chn-community/article87100497.html