St. Francisville, Louisiana
This is the view from my screen porch, where I’m working this morning. Everything in that salad came from our farmer’s market (except for the walnuts). Fresh cucumbers and tomatoes — nothing like ‘em! And believe it or not, Mr. Hadden grows lettuce here hydroponically. Delicious stuff. Three big fat heads for $10.
My mom brought over a bunch of yellow squash from my dad’s garden. The summer vegetable deluge has begun!
Geoff Guth says: *Sigh* Fresh, right off the vine tomatoes. We won’t have those until summer. Truly, the embarrassment of riches that southerners have in fresh vegetables over much more of the year, compared with what we have in our more northern climate is a cross that is so difficult to bear.
RodDreher says: Ah, but do you want to know what a real regional cross to bear is? July and August in Louisiana. It’s Hell’s humidor. Fresh tomatoes in May redeem the misery to come later, but only just.
RodDreher says: One helpful strategy we’ve found, Rebecca, is cooking a bunch of stuff on the weekend, when we have more time, and freezing it. This is really going to be an important strategy starting this weekend, when our CSA boxes start coming in, and we can’t possibly eat all the veggies we’ll be getting.
I love fresh tomatoes with nothing on them but sea salt, but when I overbuy, and have to use some up before they go bad, it’s easy to make gazpacho, or a tomato sauce for use on pasta or meat later.
Geoff Guth says: It’s a fallen world.
Here in Alabama, we’re about 3 weeks into the significant produce season, which will last until late Fall. That said, not everything will be productive for the duration. The heat and humidity takes its toll on the plants, but we’ll have something fresh and green at least until the first frost.
I had fried green tomatoes from my own garden 2 weeks ago and am living off my farmers market purchases now. Last year, my tomatoes were producing well into November. I picked all the green ones the week of Thanksgiving, just before our first really big freeze. We had homegrown tomatoes ripening through the New Year (no, they weren’t as good as the July tomatoes, but they were good for salads).
I’ve actually been thinking about your question on why people don’t eat healthier and right here is one reason: many of us don’t live in the South. Up here on the northern tundra tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash won’t be available for another 3 months at the earliest. Our local farmer’s market doesn’t even start until mid-June.
The other reason I have is that it’s a learning process not just to prepare, but to plan and shop for a different way of eating. I can go through the grocery store and get supplies that I know will last a week on autopilot. I have a bunch of recipes and go-to snacks that I can pull out of my hat without thinking about it when I’m exhausted. When I’ve tried to change the way I eat I’ve found that I don’t know how much of different things to buy. I run out of things and trying a new recipe while exhausted just sucks. It’s really about the amount of mental energy I have to devote to the process of learning to shop and cook differently. Which would be why we had a cornbread taco bake for dinner last night rather than something nice and healthy! I just looked at the supplies on hand and came up with something from that.
At any rate, I’m jealous of your salad. And about the fact that you can sit in your screened in porch. I’m still warming up from taking the toddler to the park this morning. It’s 55 and spitting light rain here. No summer vegetable bonanza for us!