Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Summer Love

The best thing about summer is what comes out of the garden. Here on Bank Street, we all have gardens and share among each other. Last night we had fried okra from David's garden.
Joe and I don't eat fancy. Along with the fried okra, I fixed a Crockpot of pinto beans, pulled some North Carolina (down East style) bar-b-que out of the freezer, and sliced tomatoes from our garden.
We had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year. It must have been the perfect weather... a little cool in late May/early June, and then hot, hot weather in late June/July. Joe treated his Kiwanis club to their annual tomato sandwich lunch last week. He fed 30 guys and gals our version of Southern caviar... sliced tomatoes on white bread with Hellman's mayo. We had enough tomatoes to can some. I canned seven quarts of tomatoes cut in quarters. They will be good in spaghetti sauce this winter.
I also canned seven quarts of soup mix. My granny, Ethel, used to can soup mix. She was canning and freezing other vegetables so she just put in a little of this and a little of that. I started mine from scratch and this was an all day ordeal. I have a new appreciation for the effort that went into every jar of Granny's soup mix. I am rather proud of how pretty the jars look. We had a little of the mix left over so I made a pot of soup. This is true comfort food.

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