In my struggle to become as self-sufficient as possible, I’ve come to love summer for the freedom she promises. In summer, I eat for free (more or less). There is something so freeing and simple that comes from being able to simply walk outside and pick my lunch. It is what I love about summer.

Talk about fast food! I just grab a handful of lettuce or spinach and maybe add a few lamb’s ears to the mix. Someday soon I will hopefully have my own blueberries. I love picking the green tomatoes that I grow by my deck and then frying them. I never knew the beauty of fried green tomatoes until about 6 years ago and if there was only one thing I could eat forever and ever, it would be fried green tomatoes.

I’ve always loved summer. My memories of summers past are even more dear to me now that everything in my life is changing, seemingly. I can remember coming home from swimming, all tan and sticky, and my mother commenting on how I was brown as a berry. I can remember picking wild strawberries out in the back field with my dad–we used to spend hours doing this and then eat nearly all of them before returning to the house. I remember Mr. Danielson’s blueberries–they were the biggest blueberries I have ever seen! Seriously, big as a walnut! And so sweet! We used to have wild blueberry bushes throughout the field, too, but when I was very young, I didn’t like blueberries all that much. Interesting though, my parents still live in the same house, the field is still there, but there are no blueberry bushes left.

One of the high points in the summer was the one or two Saturdays that my aunt and uncle and three cousins would visit. We always had the same menu–Polish round steaks (hot dogs), baked beans and corn. This was the standard fare for picnic tables all over the country and to me, was the best feast ever. My mom and aunt would boil dozens and dozens ears of corn! My dad and my uncle were famous for the amount of corn they could put away! These days, my dad barely eats one ear.

I can remember, when I was a kid, being bored during the summer. If I couldn’t go swimming, I would just hang around the house waiting for school to start again. I should have enjoyed that time of doing nothing because I haven’t experienced the feeling of being bored in decades!

So, I have no recipes to share other than this–for the best meal you could ever have, don’t put on your shoes and don’t get dressed-up. Step out the back door, walk past the kittens sunning themselves on the deck, scoot past the chickens, and step over the fence into the garden and grab a big fat tomato. Rinse, eat, and repeat.

One Old Goat blogs at One Old Goat & Her Little Farm.

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