We have been in gustatory heaven for the last couple of weeks.  Our tomatoes have produced a nice crop though not without problems.  The violent storm of this time last week provided more than enough water for several days but I added more almost drowning the poor things.  I was too used to the struggle earlier in the season of keeping them well enough watered and did not shift my thinking quickly enough to meet new conditions.  We bought one tomato this season from one of the local farmers' market stands and haven't needed to augment our own supply since.  That tomato and our own have been absolute ambrosia.  Mom smiles every time we comment on how good they are.  Fried green, cooked as salsa, diced on salads or sliced with cottage cheese--any way we want they are fantastic.  We had forgotten how good they could taste.

On our first visit to that little farm stand mentioned above we also bought six ears of corn. Most have gone into the freezer but we indulged in a couple of ears for supper.  Nothing tops boiled corn on the cob dripping with margarine and salt unless it is combined with sliced vine ripened tomatoes.

We have been seriously disappointed in supermarket food over the last couple of years.  I can't count how many times Mom has looked at me over the dinner table and asked if it was her 'taster' or was something off about the flavor.  We didn't buy any tomatoes last year.  Too expensive and no flavor.  We thought we would expand the fruit in our diet and purchased a bag each of frozen peaches and mixed fruits.  Both were abysmal.  The peaches were tasteless rocks and remained so after Mom, in a fit of disgust, baked them in a pie.  We couldn't tell what fruits were which in the mixed batch because they all tasted the same.  Mom is going to cook the hell out of them and make a topping for short cake or pound cake.  We can't quite bring ourselves to throw them away.  The fresh peaches in the grocery store are hard and don't smell like peach.  But the ones we got at the farmer's stand were lush, juicy and tender.  They made a wonderful peach pie.  I can hardly wait till the apples come in and we won't buy them from the supermarket.

We are already planning our patio garden for next year.

On the theme of food, a blogger I recently found, Vivian at Off The Grid, posted a piece entitled 'Oh, We're So Fat.' (July 24)  She notes that Mississippi tops the list of the fatest states but then continues with praise for good foods most of us have forgotten--luscious biscuits, barbecue, cornbread.  There is nothing wrong with those foods.  What is wrong is a lifestyle light on healthy exercise and long on boredom and/or stress and then combined with highly processed foods touted as low calorie, low fat, low whatever is the bad nutrient of the week.