Life in the ‘40’s … simple but memorable.
My last blog entry was about the year 1933 and it got me to thinking about the years that followed. In particular it brought back a memory of a favorite meal that my mother used to make. We could only have it during the harvest months since tomatoes were the main ingredient. We children would gather them off the vine from our vegetable garden…still warm, ripe and juicy.
Then we would cut them into cubes and combine them with home-made mayonnaise, ketchup, herbs, salt & pepper to taste. We would do this early in the day so that it could marinate all day in the refrigerator. At supper time we would have two big bowls on the table. One bowl contained steaming hot, white rice with chunks of bologna and the other was the bowl of juicy and chilled, marinated, tomatoes.
It sounds strange in these days of plenty ... but that was a feast as far as we were concerned. We’d heap our plates and always came back for seconds. Over the years I’ve tried to reproduce that recipe but it’s never been a success. I’m sure it has to do with the tomatoes. The type that they sell in the stores today have little in common with the ones that I remember.
Last summer my daughter brought me a few heirloom tomatoes from her own garden and I couldn’t believe how delicious they were. I saved the seeds and am determined to see if I can get them to grow ! If I do you can bet that my first meal using them will be the one I’ve described here.
7 Comments:
Oh my! The thought of long ago tomatoes! My taste buds are suddenly awake!
I have an heirloom catalog but have not ordered from it, have stuck to trying the older "named" plants from the nursery, only to be disappointed each time. But, they are better than those red cardboard tasting things from the store.
Where does your daughter get her seeds? I will have to get brave and start my own from seed.
Speaking of hair looms ... I could use one. Oops.
Those supermarket tomatoes are awful. I don't even eat them. Hope you have great luck in the spring with your seeds and can recreate that special dish.
My favorite summer dinners were a large plate of tomatoes fresh from the garden and a large bowl of corn on the cob. Nothing else was needed except a glass of milk.
Heirloom tomatoes are the best. Nice post.
So much fruit and veggies today have no flavor. They're all bred for appearance and to ship well. The last strawberries I ate that had real taste were Sequoias that a Japanese couple grew in a large commercial lot. He had a stroke, eventually she was alone then had to stop also. The area was taken over by a McDonald's. I see a parallel to what has been occurring with our culture.
Just as I chose to begin more blogging in 2015, I encountered 'puter problems but got up a post. More tech problems to resolve yet.
I still remember the taste of my dad's tomatoes grown on a wartime 'allotment' in south London. Even today's most expensive 'on the vine' ones do not compare.
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