You say tomaytoes,

I say tomahtoes…..

Summer is definitely here. As a matter of fact, it’s almost high-summer in my mind. Some recognizable signs of high-summer?

      July 4th has come and gone

      The All Star game in baseball is over

      High temperatures, with high humidity

      Crabs and crabfeasts

      Drinking an occasional “lawnmower beer” while working outside

      Oh, and the tomatoes in our garden are finally ripening!  

In my mind, nothing says summer like a tomato from the garden. Just picked, washed off, sliced, and maybe a sprinkle of salt on it. Or whole and hot from the vine, dripping juice and seeds down my chin and shirt. That could be a feast unto itself.

We’ve been eating some items out of the garden for awhile now – broccoli, onions, basil, various peppers, some baby beets, but so far, no tomatoes. That changes tonight, when we will have our first grape tomatoes from the garden, halved, and added to a salad.  

It’s been a strange growing season, and things are a bit delayed. May was cold and rainy for almost the whole month, so even though we put the tomatoes in near the start of May, they are just now starting to really grow and ripen. The grape tomatoes will go into salads, starting tonight. The Early Girls aren’t so early this year. And the Roma, Beefsteak, and Heirlooms? Still to come.  

In our future? Cheeseburgers with a slice of ‘mater… Caprese Salads….. Gazpacho…. and of course that king of summer sandwiches – the BLT. The bacon and lettuce, along with a smear of mayo are important. You can toast or not toast the bread. But what’s the true key? A couple of slices of fresh tomatoes from the garden. When our good friend Tim’s tomatoes come in, he says….

       “yep, fry up a pound of bacon, get a loaf of bread, keep slicing tomatoes and eat till the bacon is gone. It is not pretty, so do not watch if you are squeamish”.  

Summertime is a sandwich.  Or at least this sandwich is summertime.

As August gets here, we’ll hit critical mass on the tomatoes in the garden, and Cathy will start canning her Tomato Provençal Pasta Sauce. It’s a great sauce, and when we have it this winter, it still tastes like summer.

For now, it is high summer. With apologies to George Gershwin,

          Summertime,

          And the livin’ is easy.

          Fish are jumpin’

          And the ‘maters are ripe….