In Celebration of Homegrown Tomatoes

“Home grown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes. 

What would life be like without homegrown tomatoes? 

Only two things that money can’t buy, 

That’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” 

An excerpt from a John Denver song, words & music by Guy Clark.

No truer words were ever spoken. Who wants to live without true love and homegrown tomatoes?

Summer is my favorite time of the year, primarily because I love homegrown tomatoes. I grew up in the small town of Warren, located in Bradley County in south Arkansas. Bradley County’s slogan was “The land of tall pines and pink tomatoes.” Bradley County grows a special variety of a pink tomato appropriately called the Bradley County Pink. In 1987 the South Arkansas vine ripe Pink Tomato was named the official state fruit and vegetable of Arkansas.

Logo courtesy of the Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival

In 1956 a group of town merchants and members of the Chamber of Commerce, which included my father, created an event to celebrate the tomato industry and help promote business in the area. The Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival was born. Parades and a beauty pageant crowning Miss Pink Tomato were added the second year. The annual All-Tomato luncheon showcased the best tomato recipes of local cooks. Since then the celebration has grown into a weeklong affair and is one of the oldest continuous running festivals in Arkansas. This year the Pink Tomato Festival celebrated its 56th year.

Tomatoes & I have a history. My father was President of the Fair & Marketing Association, which sponsored the Pink Tomato Festival, about the same time the Festival got its start. One night he came home for dinner and told us that a member of the association had a cousin named Johnny from nearby Kingsland who was an up and coming singer for Sun Records in Memphis and he was willing to sing at the rodeo during the Festival. It just happened to be the same time that Elvis Presley was also recording for Sun Records. Johnny brought a friend of his along to perform at the rodeo, Jerry Lee Lewis, who had just recorded two hits for Sun -Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On and Great Balls of Fire. By now you know I'm talking about the legendary Johnny Cash. It was on that night in the fifties that people in my small home town got a glimpse into the beginning days of Rock & Roll and I was in a front row seat.

The Broadway hit Million Dollar Quartet was inspired by the legendary Rock and Roll recording session at Sun Records that included Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and of course the King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley.

In honor homegrown tomatoes, I have two simple recipes that showcase the rich, sweet flavors of vine-ripened tomatoes. Our friend and fellow blogger Larry from Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings and his wife Bev have shared two of their homegrown tomatoes from their garden with us today.

The yellow one’s name is Persimmon and the green striped one is a Green Zebra. I picked up the dark wine colored one, a Cherokee Purple, along with a small red heirloom, at our local farmer’s market to complete the color combination.

An easy way to serve tomatoes is to arrange some slices on a platter, drizzle with a little extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, liberally sprinkle with crunchy sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and top with a few leaves of fresh basil from your herb garden. It doesn’t get much simpler or better than that.

If you want to get a little fancier, take the same arrangement of tomatoes and instead of using the olive oil & vinegar, top them with a southern pea salad.

I normally use black-eyed peas for this salad, but again thanks to local homegrown gardens, I was able to find fresh purple hull peas, another great memory from my childhood in the south. Purple hull peas are a cousin of the black-eyed peas and sometimes called “cow peas” or “southern peas.” When I was growing up, my mother bought bushel baskets of unshelled peas from local farmers and everyone in my family sat around and shelled peas into newspapers in their lap, probably watching Ozzie and Harriet. I shudder to think about how many bushels of peas I shelled as a child. The thing I remember most about purple hull peas is that they stain your fingers a light shade of purple and I can assure you, very embarrassing for a teenager at school the next day.

I’ve used ham in this recipe, but feel free to leave it out for a vegetarian dish. Black-eyed peas are normally in this, but if you ever run across purple hull peas, be sure to give them a try. Most people think they’re more flavorful than black-eyed peas.

Southern Pea Salad, sometimes called Southern Caviar
From My Carolina Kitchen

1 can black eyed peas, drained & rinsed well (or cooked purple hull peas)
1/2 cup (more or less) lean cooked ham steak, cut into ½” pieces
1 shallot, minced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Pinch of sugar
Dash of Tabasco (or to taste)
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Crunchy sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
Minced scallions, including green tops
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded & diced, optional
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Place pea in a mixing bowl and set aside. Sauté the ham in a non-stick skillet until nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Let cool for a moment and then add it to the peas. Add shallot and stir. Measure olive oil, vinegar, sugar, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, and salt & pepper in jar with a tightly fitting lid and shake well to make vinaigrette. Toss the vinaigrette over peas and ham and stir to coat. Add the scallions and jalapeno pepper. Refrigerate for a couple of hours for flavors to develop.  Serve at room temperature. Easily doubled or tripled. Great served with sliced homegrown tomatoes.

Plain or fancy, there’s nothing in the world like homegrown tomatoes.

These recipes will be linked to Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farms, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday at Simple Recipes, Foodtastic Friday at Not Your Ordinary Recipes, Seasonal Sunday at The Tablescaper, Southern Sundays at Slice of Southern, Summer Salad Sunday at Easy Natural Food, and On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable.

Childhood Christmas Memories

Beverly of How Sweet the Sound is our hostess for Pink Saturday and this week she’s asked us to post about our childhood memories of Christmas.

I grew up in Warren, a small town in southeastern Arkansas, and my family had a jewelry store where I worked at Christmas from the time I could barely see over the counter until I left home after graduating from college to pursue my own career. My grandfather Weiss left Kansas at the turn of the century and arrived in Warren on a horse-drawn buggy after riding the Cotton Belt Railroad to the end of the line in a nearby dusty Arkansas town. On arrival in 1905 he found three newly established lumber mills and decided that they would insure a growing town, so he took his diamond ring and used it to finance his dream of owning his own jewelry store. He was also an Optician and a fine watchmaker and it wasn’t unusual in that day for a jeweler to be an Optician as well. A few years later he married my grandmother Turner, a local girl. Her grandfather was one of the original pioneer families that came directly to the Arkansas territory when their ship landed from England in the early 1840’s at Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. My father followed in my grandfather’s footsteps and was an Optometrist as well as a jeweler. His store was a fixture on the square in Warren for seventy-five years.

Weiss Jewelry was considered to be a Guild Jewelry store, meaning it sold fine jewelry such as diamonds, watches, gem stones, clocks, sterling silver, leaded crystal, fine bone china, Dresden Porcelains, as well as novelties and top quality costume jewelry. During the roaring twenties the store stocked brilliant comb sets that flappers desired and brides counted their friends by the cut glass wedding presents they received from Weiss Jewelry. During the Great Depression my grandfather saved every silver dollar that was spent in his store, knowing the sacrifice the person made to part with such a valuable coin during hard times to buy a loved one a special gift.

Photo of Weiss Jewelry circa 1930’s with my grandfather in the foreground and my father in back with customers

Every July my father went to the Dallas Merchandise Mart to purchase for the Christmas season. He took great pride in decorating his windows for Christmas and the Santa above, shown on my mantle at home, is a perfect example of one he might have chosen for his windows. He also had exquisite taste and wanted each present from his store to represent an elegant gift. It had to be wrapped (at no cost to his customer of course) in expensive foil paper, tied with a gorgeous bow, and be a thing of great beauty for the giver to present to the lucky recipient. A gift from Weiss Jewelry was meant to stand out among all of the others. As a young person, I was a junior bow maker and later, as a teenager, I “graduated” to the back-up gift wrapper.

The jewelry business has an unspoken rule about gifts, much like a confidentially agreement with a lawyer or accountant. For example, if Doctor So-in-so comes in and looks at an expensive diamond watch, the jeweler would never say, “Your wife Helen would love that.” Just as your accountant knows your income, your jeweler knows about the other woman. Confidentially is a lesson I learned at an early age.

If any of you have ever worked in retailing, you know that it’s made up of very long hours and hard work during Christmas. I remember going to the post office on Christmas Day with my father after we had opened our own presents at home to see what had arrived a bit late that needed to be gift-wrapped and delivered by us at the last minute to a waiting customer. During the season my parents were always exhausted and, as a child, Christmas just meant hard work and long hours to my family. My parents missed the rounds of holiday cocktail parties and social events. My mother decorated our house on Thanksgiving Day, took my sister and myself to the big city the next day to shop for our gifts, and worked at the store for the remainder of the season. On Christmas day right after dinner, she took our tree down and put away all of the Christmas decorations.

“Why don’t we leave our tree up like other families do?” I asked my mother one year. “They don’t take theirs down until after January first.”

“I guess I’m just sick of seeing it, Sissy,” she said. “I’ve had enough of Christmas.”

I said I would never follow in their footsteps, but of course I did. After college I went into a management training program of a large Federated Department store in Texas and worked long and tiring hours just like my parents. At Christmas time all I could think of was going home and putting my feet up because they were killing me and I was exhausted. As a young bride, it’s amazing my husband put up with me. From the day after Thanksgiving until early January I was either at work or asleep.

All through my childhood I promised myself that when I grew up, if I didn’t work in retailing at Christmas, I would throw the biggest, most elaborate party I could and invite all of my friends. And I would also keep my Christmas tree up until January like everyone else did.

Photo from the Martha Vick website of the exterior of the mansion

Many years later my husband Meakin and I lived in Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was in the late eighties, with my retail career was behind me and a job with more civilized hours, we decided it was time to have our first “big” Christmas cocktail party. We had just remodeled a darling but tiny cottage on Confederate Avenue in the old Civil War Military Park. Although it was lovely, it was much too small to host a cocktail party of the size I had in mind. I was fulfilling a dream and my list consisted of at least fifty people. Fortunately two of our friends had a beautiful home that specialized in hosting big parties and they were both gourmets themselves. Our friends Bill and David owned The Martha Vick House, a gorgeous one story Greek Revival antebellum mansion on Grove Street that they had lovingly restored. Dating back to 1830, it was built by Martha, the daughter of the city’s founder, Newett Vick, and constructed of beautiful hand-made pink bricks with plaster covering the inside walls. I thought it was the perfect setting for the big cocktail party of my dreams.

Vicksburg is a black-tie kind of town and Bill and David know how to throw a big bash. Out comes their huge set of antique Havilland fine bone china and gobs of brightly polished sterling silver. They set up an elaborate buffet table in the dining room complete with lots of silver candlesticks holding tall glowing tapers. A florist friend artfully composed a gorgeous holiday creation for the center of the table. The food that evening included a large footed, ornate cut glass bowl overflowing with jumbo Creole shrimp that had marinated in a garlicky paprika Remoulade sauce. A large holiday ham glazed with bourbon and brown sugar sat high on a pedestal on a large silver tray with sliced freshly roasted turkey breast below it accompanied by homemade biscuits for making your own sandwich, a bowl of spicy pickled Black-eyed Pea Caviar (here’s my version) surrounded by dark party ryes, Tuzzi dip (a cheesy, spicy sausage mix) with crispy chips, asparagus spears decoratively placed on a tray with an aioli dipping sauce in a small Paul Revere silver bowl, a generous platter of Vicksburg tomato sandwiches (no party in Vicksburg was ever considered complete without tomato sandwiches and homemade mayonnaise) and piles of decadent, rich crème puffs and tiny pistachio wafers, both handcrafted by Bill. I'm sorry I don't have a photograph of our Christmas buffet, but below is a spring dinner party in the dining room of the Martha Vick House so you can get a feel for the dining room and see the lovely antique china and glasswear.

Photo of a spring dinner party in the dining room from the Martha Vick website

At the time we belonged to a private club in town, so we hired two of the bartenders we knew from there to tend bar. It was great because they knew what everyone’s favorite cocktail was - who wanted their martini extra dry or up, who drank scotch & soda, and which lady loved gimlets. This was in the day that people had cocktail parties at home. Today many people entertain their friends in a bar or restaurant after work and everyone comes casually dressed and drinks wine or beer. It also seems that no one has their own special drink anymore. I truly miss these kinds of cocktail parties. There’s something special and elegant about getting all dressed up and sharing cocktails and chit chatting with your friends at home (even if it is someone else’s home) that you can’t duplicate in a restaurant or bar. But - the very best part of this particular party was all we had to do was arrive on the night of the party dressed and ready to celebrate.

Photo of a cocktail party from the Martha Vick website

During that same period of time one of my recipes won the National Catfish Contest. Our friend Laurin, the Foods Editor of the local paper, called requesting an interview and pictures for the paper. As we visited, she said, “Sam, I assumed you didn’t know how to cook because you and Meakin always throw catered parties.”

Well Laurin, I think catered parties are the very best way to have a big cocktail bash for fifty or so of your best friends and I highly recommend it for a busy lifestyle, even if you do know how to cook. All you do is arrive a wee bit early, have a cocktail and relax with the owners Bill and David. When the door bell rings, greet your friends warmly while dressed in your finest black-tie attire standing beside the lovely marble top table in the foyer with a huge Christmas tree loaded lights twinkling in the background.

Photo of the foyer during Christmas from the Martha Vick website

But this is the most important part - have fun yourself instead of rushing around refilling the buffet or heating food in the kitchen. Mingle with your guests and enjoy the scrumptious food that someone else has prepared. After your last guests leaves, have a nightcap and discuss your plans for next year’s party and forget the dishes. Now that’s my kind of cocktail party. I consider it my childhood Christmas dream come true.

For additional ideas on how to throw a cocktail party, including how to stock the bar, Southern Accents can tell you everything you ever wanted to know. If you are ever in Vicksburg, Mississippi, The Martha Vick House is open for tours 364 days a year (closed for New Years Eve when they throw their own bash for friends).

Please be sure to drop by and say hello to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound where you’ll find links to other Pink Saturday bloggers and read about their childhood memories of Christmas. Happy Pink Saturday everyone.

A tribute to summertime, the Bradley County Pink Tomato and the early days of rock and roll stars

It’s almost time to say good-bye to summer, although fall doesn’t officially start until September 22. Summer is my favorite season of the year, primarily because I love homegrown tomatoes. I grew up in the small town of Warren, in Bradley County in southeastern Arkansas. It was known as “the land of the tall pines and pink tomatoes.” Every year, during the second week in June, Bradley County celebrates with a Pink Tomato Festival honoring the Bradley County pink tomato, a special variety of tomato which holds the distinction of being Arkansas’ state fruit and vegetable.

In 1956 a small group of the town merchants and members of the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce, which included my father, decided to create an event to celebrate the tomato industry and help promote business in the area. The Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival was born. Since that one day event in 1956, the celebration the festival has grown into a week long affair and is one of the oldest continuous running festivals in Arkansas. A parade, complete with the governor riding in a convertible, and beauty pageant were added in 1957. The all-tomato luncheon has always been a favorite.

In fact this year in June of 2009 the residents of Bradley County set the worlds record for the longest BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich by making a 169-foot-long BLT, using 60 pounds of sliced Bradley tomatoes, 300 pounds of Arkansas Tyson bacon, 220 ounces of mayonnaise and 80 pounds of lettuce.

Photos courtesy of the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce

Over the years the market share for pink tomatoes has been eroding because supermarkets’ now rely on durable strains of tomatoes, picked green and forced to ripen after being removed from the vine. Thick skinned tomatoes are favored for this because they aren’t easily damaged in shipping. But we all know those supermarket tomatoes lack the flavor and texture of vine-ripened fruit. For Arkansas consumers, the vine-ripened pink tomato is still available in farmer’s markets and Warren continues to host the Pink Tomato Festival every June.

As I recall, about this same time as the merchants and chamber members were starting the festival, this same group of men put together the South Arkansas Fair & Marketing Association. One of the things I remember they did was to build a large pavilion where the farmers could bring their tomatoes to be graded and boxed for shipment and where the farmers could work with the various tomato buyers. The Fair & Marketing Association also hosted the Annual Bradley County Fair & Livestock Show.

My father was President of the Association when I was in about the seventh grade. He came home for dinner one night and announced that Otis Cash, one of the members, had a cousin named Johnny from nearby Kingsland who was an up and coming singer for Sun Records in Memphis, which was about the same time Elvis, the king of Rock and Roll, was recording for Sun and got his start in the music business. Johnny planned to bring a friend of his, another one of Sun’s recording artists named Jerry Lee, and they would be the entertainment for the Livestock Show that year. You’ve probably figured out by now I’m talking about Johnny Cash in the early years of his career. Johnny Cash went on to become one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century with early hits as “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line.” His friend was the one and only Jerry Lee Lewis who had just recorded two hits for Sun Records, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire.”

It’s been years since I’ve thought about the Pink Tomato Festival or eaten a Bradley County Pink, as they are called. My father used to send us a case each year, but he’s been for gone twenty-five years and I probably haven’t been back to Arkansas but a few times since then.

When my husband and I went to see the movie about Johnny Cash’s life, Walk the Line, a couple of years ago, I remembered that night in the fifties when he and Jerry Lee belted out their rock and roll songs around a grand piano on a stage in the rodeo arena in a sleepy small town in south Arkansas. My sister and I had pony tails back then and we probably wore our poodle skirts and saddle shoes as we sat in the front row in box seat at the livestock show of a small town rodeo along with our father watching rock and roll history unfold. Cash and Lewis went on to receive numerous awards and both were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

As I said earlier, summertime is my favorite time of the year and I’m really going to miss the homegrown tomatoes. What is your favorite time of the year and what will you miss most about summer?