One thing I really miss about living up north is the ability to go into the garden and harvest a perfect summer supper. I could put in a garden here in Florida and I actually intend to do so, but I have to re-learn everything for this region.

While I was at my paternal grandmother’s house in WV this past weekend for my maternal grandmother’s funeral, I pretty much ate exclusively out of the garden. My Grandma Dot puts in a massive garden with the help of my uncles and cousins. She has a spare lot that is completely dedicated to the garden and it has a good 60 years of lovely soil and compost going on, so the land is rich.

My grandmother had all but let the garden go after the last heat wave. The weeds had overtaken and the veggies were rotting. She had written it off for the season. I, on the other hand, was thrilled that anything at all was left and I harvested every bit I could.

I was unable to rescue the cucumbers and squash, but I picked pots and pots of green beans, young sweet white corn, red and yellow tomatoes just ripe to perfection, and tender green peppers. I ate these at every meal. We had bacon and tomato sandwiches with all the fresh side dishes, we ate a lovely pulled pork BBQ that my cousin brought me back from the pig roast for which he raised the pig, and sometimes we just has slices of tomatoes and ears of corn with fresh rolls (there is a bakery quite literally at the end of Grandma Dot’s street) and good cheese.

I brought back a little of the harvest and just now I ate my last perfect summer supper of sliced tomatoes, sweet corn with butter and sliced baby green peppers. I feel satisfied to the point of bliss. Simple foods, simple meals, simple garden harvest – these are all things that remind me of being a young girl.