By Ann Eller, ICCT Treasurer and Faith Team Leader
Chasing lightning bugs, spitting watermelon seeds, and eating vegetables. Those things evoke “summer” to me through childhood eyes. My family almost never ate meat in the summertime. Why would we? There was an abundance of vegetables outside in the garden, waiting to be plucked and eaten off the vine, or cooked with butter and eaten with cornbread.
In the spring, baby lettuce and onions chopped together and wilted with vinegar and oil, creamed new potatoes with peas. In the summer, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers on white bread with mayonnaise, and slices of each with every meal. Fried, stewed, or casseroled squash or okra. Green beans, beets, all kinds of greens—mustards, collards, beet tops.
And when the cicadas started talking, fresh corn on the cob that we rolled on a stick of butter, and cabbage fried in a pan. The whole summer, I watched Mom turn extras into pickles, canned tomatoes and green beans, frozen squash and butterbeans. That abundance was available all winter as we watched the cans in the cabinets and veggies in the freezer diminish. When they were gone, we knew it was time to begin the garden all over again!
What would it take for us to live more like that now?
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Vegetarian Recipe shared by Gail Powell
I got this salad from my good friend Ruth years ago. Ruth is the best cook I know. It’s one of my family’s favorite summer recipes. I always make a trip to the farmers market for fresh-picked sweet corn when making this recipe. Click here for the recipe.
