Tomatoes as a clue to the meaning of life
The tomato juice extravaganza was fabulous. I learned all the secrets of the family recipe. When I was adding the salt and the sugar to the jars, I asked Grandma how she knew how much to add - whether she had tried it different ways and settled on that one. She said, “I do it that way because that’s what my mama always did.” It was fun to feel like I can also be a link in that chain. I stood at Grandma’s old sink, the one on the old porch (it’s not a porch any longer, but it used to be outside) slicing more tomatoes than I have ever sliced in my life, thinking about some of the frustrations I have been encountering lately. Using the same recipe my great-grandmother used has the same effect that the Lord’s Prayer and the Doxology and old hymns have on me . . . I stopped focusing so much on the bad stuff and started thinking about God’s faithfulness to my family through the years. It was nice to get some perspective.
August 2nd, 2004 at
i’m glad you had fun. hopefully i can learn all my grandfather’s recipes pretty soon. he’s given my mom the recipe for his spaghetti, but it never comes out the same. my mom is convinced he’s holding something back.
August 2nd, 2004 at
so, I think that one of my most fabulous adult memories has to be when I made jelly with my grandma last summer, it was something simple passed down through the generations, and I couldn’t deny that sometimes family is just wonderful.
August 3rd, 2004 at
That sounds so fun. I’m a bit jealous that I never did that kind of stuff with my grandparents. I did get to live with them, but after they were too old to do that kind of stuff.
August 3rd, 2004 at
did you make the tomato juice with your new JUICE TIGER?
August 3rd, 2004 at
Trey, I have no idea what you are talking about.
August 3rd, 2004 at
Trey juices everything now…(S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y…night!)
August 3rd, 2004 at
its all part of my new Garth Brooks JUICE diet… I read about it in “the paper”
August 3rd, 2004 at
and by “paper” trey means the farmer’s almanac
August 4th, 2004 at
I thought it was the Weekly World News…?