First words of summer? “It’s hot!” Well yes, yes it’s hot. It’s summertime. With so many activities available in summer, to choose just one to regale and remind you of took me a few stabs. But! Yes a hot summer “but.” As I’m the ultimate summertime foodie let’s discuss the sweet and sour of summer eats. Not recipes. That spectrum needs to be left to someone who actually knows how a recipe works. You know, how gluten and salt and sugar and goo work together. That’s definitely not me. I just throw and go. Especially in summer. Oh I have secrets to my summer food stuffs, I just don’t write them down. I mean come on, it’s summer. Who has time to stop for mundane technicalities? So light the fire, pop the top off a can of lemonade and let’s talk sweet and sour of summer. My favorite June thing is the sweetness of fresh cherries. Not to bake, just to eat right out of the bag. Yes I wash them first. I’ve learned over the years to not just grab and smack those red goodies. Least you have your mouth all set for the deliciousness of what can only be described as pure summer in your pie hole and you get a sour one. The ones that as soon as you bite into them your mouth becomes a dry hole of dust that closes up and puckers. So watch out for the hiding sour puss causing dingles in your sack of goodness. See, sweet and sour. Not to pick on cherries. Get it? Pick, cherries! HAHA But what of watermelons. Oh I so enjoy picking a watermelon at the store. For many years when I was asked about the odds of something I would reply that the odds of something happening is 50/50. Either “it” will or won’t happen. But watermelon picking? I happily am way above the curve of being a good melon picker. I have a good thumping finger to be sure. Of course there are exceptions to every rule of a picker finger. Yuck. I cannot guarantee that the first melon of my summers will be one of those sweet, cracks ahead of the knife as you slice it, melons. Not sour, just not sweet. Kind of light red and just north of tart. Come the end of June and the rest of the summer? I am spot on. I can pick a melon that will put juice down your chin that will require two swipes of your T-shirt. See, sweet and somewhat sour. Let’s not move away from the melons until we take a look at the melon box at the store. It is a magical place. Everyone, to the person who saunters up to pick a melon has a “system.” Of course my thumper cannot be beat as I said. But there are some wonderful sights to behold as people pick a melon. It’s not like a cantaloupe. You can’t easily pick up a watermelon, stick your fingernail in the end and sniff it. Who would do that!? If you are in the veggie department and you have a minute or two, use it to watch the melon box. I’d bet you’d be rewarded with a wonderful show. I like when a family is shopping for a picnic and grandpa is there. He is usually the one to pick the melon. Most grandpas have that ability to enthrall little ones with some wonderful summer magic. Picking a melon, just the right one, is one of those wonderments. It happens often in summer at the melon box. Lastly? The after dinner campfire. The marshmallows. How much mallow does it take in your hair to make you promise you will never do that again? I have no idea. I will always get it in my hair. Even on my eyelashes a few times. But I will never stop roasting marshmallows. I have yet to try a s’more. They look like such yumminess but I came to the s’more party late in life and have not taken the s’more plunge into all that sticky, mallow, chocolatey, where’s the wet rag of goodness around a campfire. I think my mom had her hands full with three little ones, burning sugar and flying sticks on fire without adding more to the party. I hope some day to get to try one. Hopefully without becoming a mummy all wrapped up in spun sugar and chocolate up to my bangs. See? Sweet of the sugar and sour of the sticky mess. Oh who am I kidding? There really is no sour of summer. Enjoy it all. Trina Machacek lives in Eureka. Her book, They Call Me Weener, is on Amazon.com or email her at itybytrina@yahoo.com to find out how to get a signed copy.
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