By Wayne McLaurin
Georgia Extension Service
Volume XXVII |
What made it great? You went in, sat down and ate what Mary had prepared that day. What the boat brought in, she fixed. And if the catch was poor, she would close up with a note on the door.
I had to caution my new bride on the first visit that she didn't want the chicken. Mary always had chicken, but only for those people who didn't eat seafood.
Maybe we all should take a page out of Mary's playbook: Eat what's in season. Most of the world does this.
Citizens of this country are spoiled with all vegetables available all of the time.
But what do we do? We complain all of the other 10 months about tomato flavor. Why do we expect a tomato that's picked green in California, gassed with ethylene and in transit or storage for five days to taste like the one you bring in from your backyard plant for lunch?
Until I was 12 years old, we didn't have a "chain store." The vegetables generally available were potatoes, cabbage, onions, garlic (yes, it's a vegetable in our family) and occasionally carrots. During the growing season, tomatoes, squash or peppers would be displayed in a hamper by the door.
Mainly we grew and ate fresh vegetables and canned what we didn't eat fresh.
Seasonality was important. We looked forward to that first tomato in the late spring as we ate canned tomato gravy with biscuits on cold, winter evenings.
Vegetables still taste as good as they always did. We just have to raise them and consume them in their season. Don't mess with Mother Nature. You know it's not nice to do so.
Eat what you have according to the season and cherish the moment.
I think that's the reason we used to line up at Mary's Place.
