Serendipity Sunday: A Tomato

I would give my opinion of having a rookie/2^nd year starting quarterback, but alas, none of my friends seem to enjoy football—wait, I am NOT enjoying Titan football…I am only going to say that GOOD THINGS take time to ripen…

                                     

       

With that thought, my friend Cheryl, has been patiently, ok, I am not sure patient is the correct word, but she has, nonetheless, been waiting for a LONG time for a tomato to ripen that was planted by nature.  Today, I scrolled through FB to find it had FINALLY ripened!  LOL  YAY, TOMATO!!

Seeing that beauty flooded my mind with memories…OK, you CANNOT be surprised by that comment.

My Daddy loved tomatoes better than most anything in this world.  We would plant about 50 – 100 tomatoes and let me tell you, planting them was not an easy task.

He would work the garden soil with his little red tractor, and add the needed fertilizer, and then find the proper place to plant them, since you had to move the crops around each year in order to get good growth.  For those who don’t know, each plant TAKES and GIVES something specific to soil, and it must be replenished in some way, so that is why things were planted at different spots each year.

It became my job to PLANT the tomatoes.  I would laugh as I looked behind me to see Daddy re-doing what I had just finished.  I didn’t say much, but at one point, I did remind him of my success at raising flowers.  He didn’t replant as many plants.  LOL

To plant the tomatoes, we had to put down the black plastic sheet and then put soil around the edges to ensure it wouldn’t blow away.  After that, out came the scissors, or Daddy’s ever present pocket knife, to cut an X in the plastic and plant the tomato plant DEEP into the soil.  It was watered with a cup of miracle grow laced water.

The homemade tomato cages were gathered (pulled from the weeds), a stake was driven beside the freshly planted tomato, cage placed over the tomato and tied to the stake with ORANGE bailing twine. THEN, bails of straw were drug to the garden and placed on top of the plastic—WHEW!

The watch for the ripe tomato began instantly, because July 4^th was the targeted date.  This meant the possibility of having to cover the crop to prevent them being killed by frost—oh, the joys of Middle Tennessee fickle weather. BUT the end result was worth the effort.

After Daddy died, baby pear tomatoes would grow around the yard from him walking around, tomato in hand and his spitting the seed as he walked.

Today, I craved those days, but was thankful for the memories.

Food, as you all know is often the center of most of my memories, and today was no exception. 

I longed for a home grown tomato on a biscuit. That was Mother’s favorite thing.

I had some grated cheddar cheese on the stove and a small amount of Bisquick left in the box from making Charcoal sausage balls a few weeks ago (he reminds me to buy sausage next time, and now Bisquick).  I mixed the cheddar cheese, Bisquick and added canned milk, mixed together and dropped small mounds of dough on the cookie sheet.  Placed them in the 425 oven and cooked 8-10 minutes.

Oh, my goodness.  Even the little store bought Roma tomatoes I had tasted heavenly!

This turned out better than my last food memory.

I saw the can of tamales and remembered what a treat it was for Daddy to have them in the winter in a bowl of chili.  I was “fascinated” as a child by the PAPER that was wrapped around them. 

I didn’t have the chili, but I ate the tamales and laughed at me.  They were ok, but not nearly as good as the memory!

Sometimes, memories are better than reality.

Time is often a good friend that allows us to forget some of the frustrating moments and cleans our heart of the bad details and fills the void of reality with love.  I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing.

So, I guess today, I choose a rogue TOMATO “grown” by Cheryl as my Serendipity moment of the day.

Cheryl's prized tomato

I can’t express my gratitude enough for my parents giving us such a happy life.  They chose US over material gains.  We had everything we needed, and too much of what we wanted, but again, that reminds me of my mother saying she had always had everything she wanted—she just knew WHAT to want.

I watch these stupid court shows, and the news and wonder WHAT we have taught the children about things that matter.  Sadness overtakes my heart when I see the lack of quality to so many lives, and what people expect from life.  I read post after post about needing Prayer back in classrooms and so on, but the real truth is that nothing will get better UNTIL Prayer and Wholesome values are brought back into the homes, and Parents start spending time with their children, teaching them by EXAMPLE of what a Quality Person is.  CHOOSE a MATE with as much thought as you choose where to eat!

It DOES take a village to raise a child, and I think that is what is missing.  Nobody seems to want to listen to each other.  We tend to firmly plant our feet in the ground and yell, NOT MY CHILD... or DON’T take away my child’s rights!  Oh me...we have a world BEGGING to be loved and disciplined.

My prayer is that EACH one reading this will do their part (yes, I speak to ME in these posts more than anyone) in changing their little corner of the world by changing themselves.  Focus on qualities that matter.  Look at the seed you are planting.  We have GOT to get back on track and start realizing that JUST because “it feels good” doesn’t mean that it is GOOD.

I pray for you and for the parents who struggle to do what is right.  Evil is at every turn, but so is Goodness—CHOOSE Goodness, Kindness and LOVE.

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the world.  I am simply Blessed to create~~charlotte♡

painted by Cheryl, of course! :)

Food Friday

There is so much that I love about growing up on a farm.

There are so many memories.

I was raised in Middle Tennessee.  Tobacco was the money crop in my area…NO, we know better now, so please don’t make judgements…

This county was once the World’s Largest Dark Fired growing area.

Tobacco plants were started on a plant bed.  This was a gauze covering that would be “gassed” to kill the weeds and the seed would be sewn.  A tobacco seed is tiny, tiny! 

When Daddy planted the plant bed, he would also sow his tomato plants, radish, green onions and leaf lettuce.

NOTHING heralded the coming of spring than when Daddy would walk in the back door holding a handful of lettuce, radish and green onions, for this meant it was time for Wilted Leaf Lettuce.

This is one of my most favorite food memories of all times!!  NOTHING tasted better to me than this…my heart is almost bursting right now from the memories!

Mother’s pretty blue eyes would light up and dance as she would exclaim, “oooooooooo”!  Mother had a gift for finding joy in the simply and common moments of life…I was blessed to learn this from her.

Mother would immediately put on ham to fry to make red eye gravy.

Cornbread was mixed to make flap jacks or (ho cakes).

Lettuce, radish and green onions were washed and placed on a platter, along with the small silver-handled knife.

One of the best memories that Mother gave us, was, no matter WHAT we had to eat, our table was always set with her Desert Rose Plates, our silverware (yes, the real silver), a napkin, and glasses for tea/water.  Most often, there was a centerpiece on the table with whatever happened to be blooming.  Bowls were used on the table, and never was a pot allowed to sit on the table.  A prayer was said before EVERY meal and we passed the food to each other…YES, pass to the right. (hmmmmm, I think…or is it to the left??  HA HA HA).  Manners were observed…there was no reaching for food, you ASKED to have it passed to you, with “pass the (fill in the blank), please.”  When we left the table, we placed our silverware onto our plates, and told mother we enjoyed our meal.  When we went to someone’s house, these same manners were observed, FOLLOWED by the ladies helping to clear the table and “do the dishes”!  NEVER, have I failed to help a hostess after a meal.

I snicker as I remember Mother asking one of us, “where are your manners.” We would usually say, “Under the table.” We would laugh, but we KNEW that we had been told to do better, and we best crawl under that table and find them!

Tonight, I am having Wilted Leaf Lettuce.

As the years have passed, I have learned that I can make a similar dish using bought items.  I usually try to buy leaf lettuce, but tonight, I am making do with Romaine Lettuce, already cut.

I have had a ham hock boiling in water for 90 minutes, making a wonderfully flavored “gravy”, that will also serve to make a pot of beans at another time.

While the cornbread in cooking in the old iron skillet, that is probably at least 60 years old, I will cut up the radish and green onions!

Back in the day, we used Red Eye Gravy that was made when the country ham was fried.  Mother always fried the ham first, then added water to let the ham tenderize and cook out the salt that was used to preserve the ham.  This is why so many people don’t like country ham, but if you boil the meat in water, much of the salt is removed, leaving yummy meat.

Red Eye Gravy would often have a teaspoon of coffee added to it…

I HOPE this will be as good as I think it will be!

YEEEEEEEESSSSS….it was good!!

Another moment of realizing just how blessed my life has been and is!  My parents gave up monetary things in order to spend time with us, but NEVER did we want for anything.  Every single need we had was met.  We were taught the importance of hard work, making do with what you have, and always being thankful for what you had.  God was first in our lives and I am grateful that they loved me enough to make me do things that I would choose not to do, if given a choice, because, in life, we sometimes do things in life that we don’t want to do, but it usually doesn’t hurt us!  I think my life was better by having parents who were blessed to be able to do what they loved…

ALWAYS take time to do things for YOU…feed your soul.  When YOU are happy, then you are able to do more for others, and after all is said and done, we are to SERVE…

Sorry, but I don't think you can have too many pictures of cornbread straight out of the oven!!

If you were here, I would serve you some Wilted Leaf Lettuce!

May you have blessings in your day that will soften your heart and cause you to sing PRAISES!...I am simply blessed to create~~charlotte♡