County Vegetable Crops Coming In

Fresh vegetables are currently plentiful throughout Itawamba County. There’s a good bounty of fresh purple hull peas, snap beans, okra, sweet corn, yellow squash, and butter beans. The county is being over run with fresh juicy red tomatoes as well. Most every family in the county has a small garden spot, if not more than a few tomato plants and folks in Itawamba County are known for sharing their bounty. Most everywhere you visit folks will ask if you want any fresh tomatoes.

This time of the year brings back memories of childhood meals of fresh vegetables during the summer months. One of my favorites was a green vegetable gumbo that included such fresh vegetables as cabbage, corn, okra and tomatoes. The soup was cooked slow in a big pot with a piece of fatback. The end result was a delicious medley of fresh vegetables cooked to perfection in a rich and tasty soup. Of course the gumbo was served with a generous supply of southern cornbread.

Other childhood favorites during the summer months were purple hull peas, snap beans and butter beans served with a generous supply of Dixie relish with a good side serving of fresh sliced tomatoes and radishes. To top such a meal off we usually had a hot peach cobbler and a generous supply of sweet tea.