The Best Part of Summer

While I am not foodie or gourmand I do like to eat. Summer is great for that. We’ve been picking up a lot of fresh food, fruit and vegetables, from farm stands and farmers markets as we generally do in the summer. There is something special about food fresh from the farm. Now some foods are really good all year round if bought frozen. Many of them are prepared and frozen within hours or even minutes of being harvested. But not everything is and not everything freezes well.

Some kinds of peas, green beans, and berries are different if frozen rather than fresh. And somehow having to shuck the corn ones self adds to the experience for me. We picked some strawberries and some asparagus from our own garden this year. It doesn’t get much better than that. Plus we have been growing some tomatoes (though not as many as usual because I am resting the garden plot this summer).

I’ve had farm stand corn on the cob four times this week which is probably more times than I ate frozen corn on the cob all last winter. Like I said – it’s different somehow. Logically? Perhaps not but emotionally? Oh yes. I am staying south of New Hampshire this week and the corn is a lot further along than it is up north. I look forward to farm fresh corn at homes soon.

I hope to pick up some fresh Long Island potatoes later this season as well. Which is the other thing. In the summer it is easier to get truly local food from small farmers. Sure you can buy potatoes all year long but they all come from a few large states out west. Potatoes are different in different areas. Maine is different from Idaho and different from Long Island and different from other regional potatoes. One gets tired of the same old industrially produced food that is always the same. Well I do anyway.

So what do you like about summer food? Or summer in general?

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