I heard there's only two things that make life worthwhile - true love and homegrown tomatoes!
Some of my best memories are of summer dinners of fresh picked sliced tomatoes, sweet onions and sweet corn on the cob we picked ourselves!
In the summer, mother would make what she called a “cold plate”: Sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions, bell pepper slices, and either potato cakes or sometimes fried potatoes. If my dad insisted on meat, she might fry some thick slices of baloney. Sometimes a hot leaf lettuce salad, made with cider vinegar, sugar, and bacon grease with diced cooked bacon, piping hot, poured over the lettuce, with some diced onion. I sometimes make pan fried corn fritters instead of the potatoes, if we don’t have corn on the cob. It’s good year round now, but 40 years ago, corn wasn’t fit to eat if you couldn’t get it to the table within 24 hours after picking it; otherwise, it would turn to starch and be tough and tasteless. I guess genetic engineering isn’t such a bad thing, when used on corn. And STRAWBERRIES! Real biscuit shortcake, still warm, split and buttered, then sugared sliced strawberries, left to sit til lots of juice was formed, poured over both layers of shortcake, then topped with real whipped cream. Yum! It’s a good thing I’ve already had my lunch!