Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Two things that money can't buy...


The majority of the heirloom Rainbow tomatoes are jarred up!  I saved a few for my daily tomato sandwiches (toast, mayo, thick sliced tomato, salt & pepper).  I hope that my own tomato plants will be ripening up soon so I can continue my sandwich routine.   Aren't tomatoes in jars the prettiest?

Tomato Memory...
One summer night a couple of friends of our kids were here.  It was one of those late summer sleepover things.  A. (our eldest child) and R. (his friend) were out in the garden.  I'm not sure if I had sent them there to pick or if they were just out looking around at the varieties of tomatoes.  (Ha!)  G. had her girlfriend over who happened to be R's sister and the girls were upstairs in G's bedroom playing and taunting the boys below.  Don't ask me where I was.  

You know how sisters can sometimes be.  Yelling out the window, making faces at their brothers, giggling, taunting.  The boys couldn't take one more minute of  those girls from the high bedroom window that overlooked the garden.  It became irresistible to them -- wanting to give those heavy tomatoes in their hands a heave.  At their sisters.  The tomatoes were flung and the girls were their targets.  I honestly don't know how many tomatoes were thrown at that window, but there was a lot of cleaning up to do.  The boys had to hose off the house and clean every bit of juice and seeds away.  I can't remember if the girls had to help them or not.  It WAS a mess.  That's all I remember.  I had plenty of tomatoes that year.  The incident  didn't seem to affect my canning production.  I'm sure the girls had to help can tomatoes the next day -- a chore my daughter despised.  Sweet, motherly revenge.

Now I leave you with my favorite summer song.

Homegrown Tomatoes 
by Guy Clark

Ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin' out in the garden

Get you a ripe one don't get a hard one
Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
All winter with out `em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' & diggin'
Everytime I go out & pick me a big one

Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love & homegrown tomatoes

You can go out to eat & that's for sure
But it's nothin' a homegrown tomato won't cure
Put `em in a salad, put `em in a stew
You can make your very own tomato juice
Eat `em with eggs, eat `em with gravy
Eat `em with beans, pinto or navy
Put `em on the site put `em in the middle
Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle

If I's to change this life I lead
I'd be Johnny Tomato Seed
`Cause I know what this country needs
Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cemetery
Out in the garden would be much better
I could be pushin' up homegrown tomatoes

16 comments:

  1. That's a funny tomato story. I don't think I've ever heaved a tomato at someone else. Maybe some day!
    Your canning looks lovely! You are like one of my favorite literary characters, Harriet the Spy. She took a tomato sandwich to school every day.

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  2. Wow, good thing my garden is so far away from the house. :) I think your sandwich for lunch is the best and I think I have had that most days for lunch. My husband just can't understand how I can eat that day after day and enjoy it like it is the first time. I just love it and I sure miss it when the tomatoes are gone.

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  3. Those tomatoes are beautiful! I played the song for middle daughter and dedicated it to her since the silly girl doesn't like any tomatoes! She doesn't know what's good for her!
    JOyce

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  4. Hurray for 'maters! Your cans look lovely. Sing, Guy Clark, sing!

    xofrances

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  5. Great memories!! What would life be without homegrown tomaters?

    Blessings, Debbie

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  7. Good story and beautiful tomatoes!

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  8. I am sorry to see the growing season coming to an end. I have been having a daily grilled chees tomato nd mayo sandwich daily. My hubby likes the cherry tomato, and a funny story...one day he was eating a salad at a dinner, he went to bite into his cherry tomato and it squirted the guy next to him. Talk about embarassed. Gotta love them tomatoes....thanks for such a nice read.
    Hugs,
    Ellen

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  9. Love Guy Clark's song! We discovered it by accident a few years back... have you heard Jay Unger & Molly Mason's version? They've made it into a Texas Swing style song. You'd love it!

    Kim

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  10. Don't they do tomato throwing somewhere in Italy too? :)

    I'm waiting for my tomatoes to turn red so that I can enjoy that snadwich too! The garden is slow this year.

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  11. Oh, boys! I bet that was a mess. Those tomatoes are perfection, summer sunshine with skin. Yum!

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  12. Your tomatoes look delicious!!! I love them , but DH does not care for them. I should play this song for him.
    ;-)

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  13. I love that Guy Clark song! I must ask my husband to bring it out of iTunes storage and play it more frequently now that we are getting some real and real tasty tomatoes from our garden, too. Thanks for the great photos. :-)

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  14. Wow...those are some beautiful "maters"!!

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  15. podías poner la receta? pásate por mi blog y si te gusta ...........te quedas?

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