Sweet Harvest Time

July 2011

Ahhh summer in Marietta!  A friend from Alaska recently emailed to ask about the onset of summer way back east in the Ohio Valley.  Is it hot? What’s in bloom? When does the sun set?  And it got me thinking about how much I do love this time of year.  It’s wet, I told him.  The air is wet, my hair is wet, and every chance I get I feel the cool wet water of the Muskingum River as I fly off an old barge rope tied to a hundred year old tree.  The heat is well worth it, I added.  The hot days and long nights make cold beer taste very good on the patios of our watering holes and back yards.  And speaking of back yards, the cool water smell that comes from my garden hose blends perfectly with the aroma of fresh basil and tomato plants.  I explain that surely the valley heat & humidity lend flavor and size to the fresh fruit and veggies that seem to multiply each week at the Farmers Market. 

I was a bit jealous to hear that the morels are just arriving in his part of the world, as ours are long gone.  But with the end of morel season comes a little green tomato - and then it’s just a matter of time before that sweet red juice drips off every sandwich I design.  The thought of tomatoes fills my head with the Guy Clark tune “Home Grown Tomatoes”, and I can almost smell the spicy Roma sauce that Meg & Ma Habel spend hours stirring in a sweltering kitchen atop Harmar Hill.  “There’s only two things that money can’t buy – and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes”. 

By this time we’ve been through three jars of Grandma’s Strawberry jam that mom and I hand mash and boil to perfection, topped with paraffin and sealed tight to last all year.  And then there’s the sweet corn…you won’t find that in Alaska.  What’s better than celebrating corn harvest with truck loads of corn on the town’s main street? “A corn festival?” he asked.  “No” I said, “A SWEET corn festival”.  Boiled, buttered, salted…ohhhh, and that pop!  I must have a dozen pictures of my son with sweet cream butter rolling down his arms and a wide summer smile.  I’m not sure I appreciated all of these things until recent years but now as I think about my Alaskan friend (who’s never been east of Colorado), I think he must not be complete. 

I do believe the wildness of the west is an amazing thing. I sometimes envy the life he leads as a wildlife guide, and continue to be amazed by his photos of grizzlies and snow white foxes that wander into camp.  But, for now I will soak up the Ohio sunshine and tend to my maters, patiently waiting for that perfect sweet corn pop.  Oh, how I wish I cold send him a sweet ear of corn and a juicy B.L.T.!

Come celebrate our summer harvest at this year’s Marietta Sweetcorn Festival – July 16 & 17.  Maybe the Mayor will play that famous Guy Clark song if you ask real nice…