The Early Bird Gets the Worm
“Watch out for the worms,” MTM called from his session of sanding the piazza floors yesterday. Yes, he abandoned me to the wilds of the kitchen. I was charged with preparing our first Farmers’ Market ears of summer corn for the grill, the vendor’s admonition still ringing in my ears…….”Let me give you an extra ear, because I know one of them will have a worm clinging to it.”
Yuck. Ick. Puke. Nasty. That’s the kind of fiber I’m not interested in consuming, even if it is grilled until it is dead dead dead.
My Mom used to usher in our summers with bushels of corn. Our annual pilgrimage to Mr. Alt’s farm (now a tacky driving range) was an EVENT – all capitals and all-out awesome. I remember driving up the dusty dirt road between what seemed like endless fields of undulating corn. Mr. Alt always had Mom’s ears ready in a big plastic bag. She drove that humid bag full of summertime home, and we sweated and shucked, sweated and shucked those juicy kernels of deliciousness, sometimes on the carport and sometimes in the middle of our living room floor.
Mom is a better woman than me. When she found a fat, happy worm, she held it up to me and squealed, “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” before taking it out and throwing it in the garbage. I stuck my virgin hands in that plastic, praying I didn’t find a disgusting worm creature groping around the tips of my fingers. The whole experience of touching something that felt EXACTLY THE SAME as the corn kernels would’ve ruined the juicy succulence of an ear for me.
Summer always meant staying up until dawn with my Mom, monitoring the pressure cooker as she “put up” that corn for us to enjoy for the coming months. To me, nothing tasted as good as gobbling a butter-encrusted ear at 3AM, burning my fingers on the hot, buttery mess. If I could go to bed without brushing the hairs out of my teeth, that was even better.
I waited all year for that singular pleasure.
What food says ‘summer’ to you?
In my previous life as a teacher and full time farmer, we not only had soy beans and field corn on 280 acres, we did a half acre garden of corn, tomatoes, peas, peppers, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, etc.
We froze nearly everything for 2 families and had 2 chest freezers for holding it all. Putting all that away is another story indeed.
The best tasting summer garden food was the first ripe tomato with the first ear of corn….OH MY! that was heaven on earth for sure. I would actually pull it from the garden just before dinner so it would be super fresh. YUUMMMMMMM!!
I didn’t realize you were a full-time farmer at one time, Lou. I miss the days of the big chest freezer. I cannot fathom why. I just miss it.
Growing up, I did not like tomatoes. My Dad grew them in the back yard, and my Mom once ate so many of them the acid made her sick. I had to reach adulthood to appreciate a good tomato, along with many, many other things.
I tried to post this earlier, but, the iThingy star tail just spun and spun, must have been on 2G today.
Annnnnny wayyyyy, in the early years of my practice mawwaige, I taught school full time, coached football and basketball in high school and farmed full time…..ALL AT THE SAME TIME!! I had no life at all and this eventually led to the downfall of the practice mawwaige.
I guess I never knew about the farming part. You were busy.
I’ve been loving the tomatoes, corn, and strawberries from the Farmer’s Market, but the food that says summer to me is watermelon. To eat a perfectly ripe, cool, refreshing slice is summer fun indeed.
Watermelon is heaven. You are right. I gross MTM out when I eat it, though, because I put salt on it. I am determined to retain all that water, you know.
How do you pick your melon, Vera? My Mom’s family has this thumping method. Thump the melons, and the one that sounds deepest is the ripest one. Works every time.
The thumping is what my grandfather and mother would do. I still haven’t figured it out yet.
I really starts to hurt the fingers if it takes a while to find a deep one. I’ve been guilty of combing through the whole display, thump-thump-thumping away.
You never told us if you found any worms! I kept waiting for the worms.
I know how my wife would answer this – tomatoes. She loves the big read juicy tomatoes that come from Edisto Island. She eats the on sandwiches or plain, but also makes the best tomatoes pie. I love it.
As for what food says summer to me? I have no idea. I am an autumn person. I wait for the taste of pumpkins in the fall. OK, sorry, I know I am different. But I love pumpkins….
Carnell, if I had found worms, don’t you think I would’ve written this whole piece about how my poor fingers were violated by the icky, nasty worm? I live most of my life now hoping ridiculous things happen to me so that I can write about them honestly.
But, it FEELS like summer when the pumpkins are coming in around here. Most of the time, Cayleigh and I wear the lightest clothes we can find to go pick her pumpkin for carving.
I would have to say that tomatoes and strawberries say summer to me the most. I also would have to say that my being forced to work in our garden every year also made me appreciate how good those thing tasted. We had a garden along the entire length of our 3.5 lots back home and my father taught me how to use the tiller and to weed the garden until I could no longer feel my back. Despite the fact that I despised him for forcing me to do that, when supper was ready and we ate those garden ripe vegetables, I was proud that I was proud of the work I had put forth to help make it happen.
I agree with you, James. The things we grow always taste better, because we did it ourselves. I wonder why that is.
Summer food? That would be watermelon. Whenever we’d go to Montana (Memorial Day usually), we’d put flowers on the graves and we’d have a big old BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa’s ranch with all the cousin….we’d put the watermelon in the creek and it would be ice cold…we’d eat it and spit seeds at each other and then….we’d have a watermelon rind fight (OUCH!).
My Mom canned cherries. Every now and then you’d get a jar of cherries out of the pantry and there’s be a worm floating at the top. EEEEEKKKKK! She’d just scoop out the worm and put those dang canned cherries on the table. Uh-huh! No way! I wouldn’t eat cherries for a very long time and even now I open them up to check first, makes for very messy cherry eating.
A rind fight???? I’ve never heard of such an event. We used to have seed fights and spit seeds on each other. I can imagine a hurled rind would hurt.
I adore cherries. Of course, they don’t grow in my part of the world, but I buy them every year and eat them until they make me sick. One of my favorite memories is of coming to Oregon during cherry season and driving up the side of Mt. Hood with my friend Alice. We stopped at a roadside stand along the way and bought a sack of cherries and ate them while staring at the panoramic view.
We didn’t find any worms.
Definitely tomatoes. There is a special smell to fresh tomatoes that just doesn’t appear in the grocery store. I used to comb the farmers market for the perfect ugly tomatoes, now my father in law grows them.
Unfortunately, I have 2 black thumbs, and may be the only Southern woman who cannot grow tomatoes.
I especially love tomato sandwiches. Cheap white bread (like Sunbeam) or small yeast rolls are my favorite canvas. Slice the tomatoes thin, then dry them thoroghly on a paper towel (this is a special, necessary step). Slather the bread with a generous amount of mayo (I prefer Kraft, though I know a lot of people like Dukes) then sprinkle the tomatoes with a generous amount of freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Make 2-3 layers of tomatoes and indulge … bliss
Amber, we are trying to grow some ugly tomatoes this year, too. If we have an oversupply, I will make sure to give you some of them to make one of these lovely sandwiches.
Although I agree that tomatoes are a great summertime treat (we are growing about 8 different heirloom varieties) I would have to say that a nice juicy watermelon even trumps the tomato for me.
Our vines are going crazy and we have several melons that are a little more than softball size right now. I can’t wait to hear that hollow sound when I thump them and know they are finally ripe!
MTM tried to grow watermelons in our side garden one year, Bill. The vines grew all over the driveway, and we got two little melons that were rotten when we cut into them. We’re sad watermelon growers.
Yours sound awesome. I hope your garden continues to flourish.
Blueberries. Blackberries. Silver Queen corn. And…Hendrick’s and tonic! (I will always be indebted to you for introducing me to its goodness.)
Ha. Yes, I am eating so many blue-and-blackberries right now, it is a wonder I don’t turn colors.
And, even though we have H & T year-round, nothing is more refreshing on a hot summer evening.
Mellons, mellons, mellons! Love them all!
yaakov…
You’re getting ready to be a very happy man, Yaakov.
Tomatoes are the best. I love them. Ate two yesterday at my parents house with just a little salt. I think I was suppose to put them on my sandwich and later my hamburger but I just pick them up and eat them.
I also am awful at growing them. We can not grow them in the soil in our yard because of the wilt disease. I know there are tomatoes that are wilt resistant but I fine the skins are too tough. So I just buy them from the farmers markets. I really love the ugly tomatoes.
Last week, I made something you might like: a tomato salad with ugly ones. It was diced tomatoes with the seeds and pulp removed, diced black olives, and lots of fresh basil. Rub a little bit of garlic in the bowl before mixing all that together along with olive oil, salt and pepper. It is summertime in a bowl.
You guys are making me hungry! All of the above, and I’ll add some home made peach ice cream to the picnic.
We have home made black-and-blueberry ice cream right now if you want to come over……..:)
Wow – these comments are making me swoon. I am definitely a summer girl. I love tomatoes, corn and peaches too. But the queen of summer is a watermelon to me. Growing up my cousin grew them in a big field on the road to our house. In the mornings on the way to “The River” (The Edisto river to anyone else) we would pick a good one and put it under the cold artesian spring for a few hours. Then we would take it out to a float in the middle of the river and break it open. Then we would scoop out the cold red heart with our hands and feast until all we had left were the white and green rinds. Then we would break those into pieces and skip them across the black water for the rest of the afternoon. Nothing says summer like ice cold watermelon.
I still cherish the memory of lugging a watermelon to the beach and eating it (and sand) when you were pregnant with Cayleigh. That child is made of watermelon, for sure.
Is it too late to comment?
I agree, watermelon. No wait, potato salad. Definitely potato salad. I identify it strongly with summertime, although my Mom made and served hers on all major holidays, but certainly on Memorial Day, the Fourth, and Labor Day for sure. It’s also true my Mom, rest her soul, made the best potato salad on the planet. I’ve also observed over my years that everybody’s Mom’s potato salad is different. Have you noticed that?
It is never too late to comment. I even try to go back to prior days and reply when people comment on those posts.
I think I was ruined with church picnic potato salad and have never much liked it. I wish I could try your Mom’s. Do you make it now?
And, yes, I often wonder how there can be so many versions of the exact same thing.
That’s a good question, and has me thinking. No, I haven’t tried to make it. When she passed away, the tradition ended, but no reason why it should have. I think I will try to find the recipe. Thanks.
Let me know how it turns out.