put 'em in a salad, put em in a stew...
put 'em in a salad, put 'em in a stew...
guy clark, 1981
I am hard pressed to come up with any person I admire more than those who can grow homegrown tomatoes in the summer.
Part of the reason for this outright adulation is because after many, many, futile warm seasons, I finally gave up all gardening pretenses. Acknowledging there are those who are superior in the skills of gardening allowed me to move on to other pursuits.
HUH? What's up with that?
It is such a delight to eat a slice of a homegrown tomato on a fried egg sandwich, or, when placed on top of bacon strips between two slices of well done rye toast.
Singer/songwriter, Guy Clark was so moved by the taste of a homegrown that he wrote an anthem to the summer delicacies. It's now 42 years later and Clark's, Homegrown Tomatoes, has a special place in tomato history.
Ain't nothin in the world I like better Than bacon and lettuce and homegrown tomatoes Up in the mornin' out in the garden......
Educators, brain surgeons, AI thinkers, people who work with a cloud that doesn't exist, nurses, therapists, plumbers, and electricians have all made contributions to society. But, at the very top of the list are gardeners and farmers. Plain and simple, they do things others can't seem to master and it defies all logic.
Pam Strothman, 78, and her husband, Jimmy, 82 are two of these special people.
My husband and I raised two kids, Pam said. I got my appraisal license and my real estate license when I was 49 after they were grown. I did that for over 20 years before I retired at 69.
You told me you've been gardening for over 45 years.
Yes, we bought five acres out in Shelby County (neighboring county to Louisville) she recalled. We've got a large garden. I don't know how many feet it takes up, but, it's not the whole five acres.
Even though you are several miles away from my home, I buy your tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and beans every year right here less than a half mile from my house.
My daughter lives here in your neighborhood, so her kids, Henry and Sara, sell what we grow, she explained. When I get ripe vegetables, I pick them and deliver them here.
Tell me about your garden.
Well, we have four cucumber plants and we'll get hundreds of cucumbers from that, she estimated. We have three rows of corn, two rows of beans, 20 tomato plants, and 11 pepper plants of all kinds.
What is the hardest vegetable to grow?
Nothing is hard to grow, she claimed, but, we have critters like rabbits and raccoons, you name it and they want to eat what we grow. A successful garden is also weather related. We either have too much rain, or too little. And, it's very labor intensive.
Is there a vegetable that's just not worth the effort?
I don't know about not worth it, but, beans are the most labor intensive plant, she offered. A lot of labor and you don't make a lot of money with beans.
How did you get interested in gardening? Have you gardened all your life?
We've gardened for the past 45 years, she smiled. We bought this property 48 years ago and we got interested because we have all this land, plus, we love being outdoors.
Do you ever grow so much food that you can't sell it all?
Oh, yes, she agreed. We give a lot of food away. We regularly take food to St. Vincent's Soup Kitchen. Every year we grow more than we can possibly eat and sell.
Let's talk about tomatoes. My favorite. I can't wait for this year's crop to show up at Henry and Sara's store right in front of their house (the store resembles a lemonade stand with scale and bags for your purchase).
This year has been tough because of all the rain, Pam lamented. That's a vegetable that we had to learn about because our typical tomato plant grows six feet tall and six feet wide, so, we give each plant plenty of room.
Are tomatoes low or high maintenance?
Pam said low maintenance with a caveat: You have to spray them because they will mildew. I use baking soda and water and they don't mildew.
Does this whole gardening process begin every spring or sooner?
Actually, it all starts in February, she explained. I lay out four layers of newspapers on top of each other while I'm sitting in front of the TV. I sit there for many nights doing that. When the time comes in May, we put the papers around every plant and then put straw on top of the newspapers. We never have any weeds or mud.
Your success year in and year out says it all. What's your secret to growing vegetables?
We've been doing this a long time and I had to learn what works and what doesn't work, she laughed. We've also learned you have to grow plants that are native to this area. Plants that come from a nursery and are from outside this area aren't going to make it.
What about you and your husband. Anything particular on your bucket list?
You know, at one time, we had a couple horses and we used to go out west to stay at a ranch to go horseback riding, she ruminated. We've ridden in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Canada, all kinds of places. We've met a lot of people from all around the world. We've ridden in mountains and seen some spectacular scenery. We've also hiked out west on many trips.
How about a favorite memory. Do you have one that stands out?
All those places we went, she said. That includes the Vancouver Rain Forest. We hiked there too.
You sound very happy with your life.
I'm very content where we are in our lives, she concluded. We've seen what we wanted to see and gone where we wanted to go.
Pam, thanks for your time and for growing delicious tomatoes.
Coming up: another job$ somebody's gotta do; a POS; a dinner with the George Brothers, and; an oddities, observations, & ?'s.
And, finally. In case you have forgotten or never heard Guy Clark's, Homegrown Tomatoes, here are the lyrics.
Ain't nothin' in the world that I like better Than bacon and lettuce and homegrown tomatoes \
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