Give Us This Day Our Daily Tomato

Give Us This Day Our Daily Tomato

                I descend from farmers and gardeners on almost all branches of my family tree even my Cherokee branch. Elizabeth Purcell Hammer, my mother’s last cousin on the Smith side, the source of Cherokee ancestry, died at the age of 102 during the month of June this year. Elizabeth told me of her grandparents (my great-grandparents), Julia Steely Smith and Walter Smith, having an orchard. The Smith Orchards were located on the land in Delaware County that my great-grandpa, Walter, had received in the allotment of the Cherokee lands in the early 1900s. The orchards grown and tended by my great-grandfather and his children held a special place in Elizabeth’s memory. Her mother, Rachel, was just three years older than my grandfather, Calvin Callcayah. The Smith Orchards marked the spot where Rachel first met Arthur Purcell, Elizabeth’s father.

My grandparents, Gladys Rainey Smith and Calvin Callcayah Smith, planted massive gardens. Grandpa emphasized his sweet corn, watermelons, and cantaloupes. Ironically, Grandma’s sensitive stomach limited what she could eat, but she planted and cultivated tenaciously, trying to maximize the garden’s productivity. She supervised the application on the garden soil of the chicken manure annually cleaned out from underneath the chicken roosts in the hen houses. Realizing that goes against all safety advice given to the 21^st century gardener, both grandparents and my father lived into their 80s and 90s respectively!

Grandpa Edmund Gates, Sr., a farmer until his death, may have helped Grandma Mamie Tripp Gates some in the garden, but in my recollection, she worked and harvested the garden herself. My father used his tiller to work up initially her garden spot in her latter years. Grandma loved to plant more unusual offerings (at least for me) such as Jerusalem artichokes, rutabagas, parsnips, and rhubarb. I can remember my grandmothers’ delight when the two of them visited about their gardening endeavors.

One of the neatest memories centered on Grandma Gates’ cherry tree north of her house. Angie, my sister, and I loaded up in the old, black Dodge pickup with Grandpa and Grandma Smith at the invitation from Grandma Gates to come pick cherries. That summer followed my first year in college. Maybe I was able finally to see the value of the work, but it was fun to fill bucket after bucket with the vibrantly red cherries. I even enjoyed helping Grandma Smith, Mother, and Angie pit the cherries. Probably much of the pleasure derived from doing work with those most important to me. This is one of the hidden blessings God gave to our cooperative family as we labored together to accomplish a common goal.

What outstanding gardens were grown by Lewis and Pearl Bierman Rainey, my great-uncle and aunt! As with my grandmothers, their garden was always free of weeds. Not even one blade of grass could be found in the perfectly tilled soil surrounding healthy, productive plants.

Of course, Great-Aunt Emma Rainey Buckley began gardening in the Bend upon her retirement and move from Washington, D.C. She frequently sought advice from my grandma, Gladys. Like her sister and sister-in-law, she canned or froze any excess produce that she gathered after having shared with relatives and neighbors.

Then there was Aunt Daisy Rainey Rice. I never remember her having a garden. She suffered with arthritis that limited her walking and movement. But her name came up last year and again this year when I tilled up, with my hoe, the two back beds where Grandma Gladys had planted flowers such as petunias, day lilies, and phlox with resurrection lilies planted as a border. Mother said Aunt Daisy planted tomatoes in her flower beds.

               Somewhat late in the season, I purchased tomatoes plants upon the recommendations of Sandye Goad and Barney Moore at the Fairfax Feed Store. I planted them on each side of the cellar, keeping them reasonably grass-free.  I tried not to disturb the resurrection lilies so some grass lingered at the beds’ borders. Mother reminded me that Aunt Daisy grew abundantly productive tomatoes in the grassy beds at her house! In fact, Mother recalled a summer when Aunt Daisy had better tomatoes than her other green-thumbed siblings  - much to their surprise! 
              Aunt Daisy and Uncle Ernest Rice lived in the house near the river with the massive porch. (My earliest memory of the place was playing with Rick Rice when he and his parents, Virgil and Helen Faust Rice lived there.) Aunt Daisy's flower bed tomatoes were never pruned or suckers pinched off, much to the chagrin of her garden guru family members. Yet her bushy tomatoes vines flourished in the grass producing tasty tomatoes.

Some of my tomato plants with a couple of cats visible, too.

               2016 is the most successful tomato harvest I have had. Mother and I have averaged a tomato a day for our lunch meal! Now I realize compared to my father’s tomato crops, this season has been a major failure, but “comparisons are odious.”
               Mother and I have had tomatoes for many summer meals. How illustrative of the way God furnishes what we need for each day! Sometimes we crave an abundance - whether it is money, fame, success, or 1,001 other things that humans can desire. However, God promises to provide our needs. When we focus on how He has met our needs, we become generous with others as we see their needs. The realization that our blessings come from our heavenly Father leads to grateful hearts willing to share.

               As Mother has laughed heartily about Aunt Daisy’s successful tomato crop in the grass, I am reminded that God can bring productiveness in the oddest places. Without exception, the person who reaches goals will meet with setbacks, hardships, and seldom achieve in the way envisioned it would be. If we wait for the perfect setting for success, it will not happen. So follow Aunt Daisy and plant your tomatoes in the grass! Then pray for eyes to see each of His blessings and give heartfelt thanks to the God who richly provides our needs and so many of our wants.

An example of our daily fare of tomatoes this summer.