Eat Your Veggies...Or I Will!

The farmers market in the city reminds me of a common practice around home. Popping beans on a back porch, or shucking corn in the afternoon before a delicious six o'clock supper, is nothing unusual. Outside of town, farms dotted the countryside. Lots of cattle, the occasional hog farms, chicken farms later on, and of course tons of fields of corn, soy bean, winter wheat and Kentucky's once most popular bounty...tobacco.

Many, if not most back yards boasted gardens. They didn't have to be large - a couple of tomato plants and a pepper plant or two would do just fine. Even still everyone knew where to go to get produce straight from the garden. More recently the Dawson Springs Main Street Program has started a farmers market downtown on Friday mornings. But before that, a drive through the countryside was necessary in way of finding what you wanted to put on your table that night, or can for the winter months.

I can see the faces of people now that sold these goods. We knew these old folks and went to their homes to buy fresh strawberries, there was another old couple that we used to buy sweet corn from - usually silver queen! There was a man that lived across the highway from West Hopkins High School that sold all sorts of produce from his garage. Blue Lake Green Beans, purple hull peas, okra, squash and zucchini, and of course gobs of tomatoes. Gobs...I haven't heard that word in a while. These kind growers would often be picking the goods when you drove into the drive. But they were eager to wipe their brow, put that straw hat or cap back on and come over to shoot the breeze.

I grew up eating meals that would make Paula Dean say Ye-haw! She would love it! My favorite combination being: Mom's Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh green beans popped that day and cooked down with a piece of ham and guess what else...bacon grease. There I said it! Hold on - I'm not finished. The table would also have fried okra, squash, sliced tomatoes - ripe and red, onion slices or green onions, and maybe a few banana peppers. Topped off with cornbread or biscuits. Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is!

Throughout the years family and neighbors have raised gardens and those years we wouldn't have to take those drives through the countryside to find these summer treasures. But when we did again it was such a pleasure to see Kentucky's land all around us. Rolling hills and forest that remind me of another time and another place.

These days I have fresh produce delivered to my door by a family farm around Austin. I participate in community supported agriculture here for two reasons. First, I love the vegetables, and even though I can't effortlessly whip them up like Mom and Dad, or other family members - I still crave them. Secondly, I do it because it is something that my family has always done. Not to be supportive always…mostly just to eat some good stuff.

When I stroll through Austin's downtown farmers market I enjoy myself but it makes me think of another way of doing it. I suppose the original way. And as Earth Day draws near I am thankful for being able to have done it both ways - to abide in the tranquility of rural Kentucky and also survive in the city. That alone gives me some interesting perspectives. However, my upbringing in Western Kentucky allowed me to see Earth Day practices year around. It was a place where farmers markets were not trendy or popular they were a treat. I grew up in a time and place that farmers small or large were revered as stewards of the land. Year after year, sharing part of their harvest with us. Old men and women that strolled through their properties admiring all that they had. Not just the fields that kept the lights on, but also the birds that sang and the trees that shaded their lawn furniture. Men and women who worked land that had known no other names than theirs. What a pleasant thought today…

Now - what's for lunch!