TheBanyanTree: A TOMATO STORY

[Laura]

On 2 Nov 2010 at 7:38, NancyIee at aol.com wrote:

> A delightful story, and a truth that can been known only through  
> experience.

How true.

When I was a kid, we lived in a house on not quite an acre of land.  Plenty big enough for a 
big garden.  Mom and Dad love squash, so there were always plenty of hills of squash.  One 
hot summer's day, when the squash was ripening, Mom picked about a thousand of them.  
Ok, so it wasn't really a thousand, but it sure seemed like it to me.  She cut them up into 1 
inch cubes, and marinated them in olive oil, red wine vinegar, herbs, and garlic.  There may 
have been onions in there too, I don't remember.  She put them in the refrigerator to 
marinate all day.

That evening, we had some kind of a family get together.  I don't remember the occasion, 
probably 4th of July.  Anyway, she poured those cold, crisp, wonderfully aromatic pieces of 
squash out into one of her fancy serving bowls, and I couldn't stay away from it.  Every time 
I got near, I'd spear four or five more pieces out of the bowl with toothpicks.  I swear, I think 
I ate half the bowl by myself.  It got to the point where I could not possibly stuff another bite 
into my poor stomach.

A few hours later, the squash started talking to me.  And not in a nice way.  I spent the rest 
of the evening in the bathroom, having a lengthy argument with the squash.  The squash 
won.  I hated squash for years after that.  It's really only been in the last five years or so that 
I could stand to eat it, but now I actually like it again.  I've not been brave enough to try it 
marinated, raw, though.

-- 
Laura
wolfljsh at gmail.com
http://wolfsinger.wordpress.com