It is a breezy day in the Blue Grass Valley. Clouds scrape across the mountain ridges and barn swallows dance above the barn lot. I picked a five gallon bucket full of garden tomatoes and now they glisten on the enameled sink. Hues of orange, pink, and deep red. Stacked neatly beside one another the “maters” bring a smile across my face. I always think of the song Homegrown Tomatoes by Guy Clark this time of the year. Mom, dad, and I would sit in the kitchen singing the words together. I met Guy Clark at a venue in Washington DC years ago where he preformed. I shook his gigantic gnarled hand and he leaned over and said “You have the most beautiful eyes.” I giggled and slipped away back into the crowd.

Today as I sit here in the kitchen the lyrics come to mind.

Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes

What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes

Only two things that money can’t buy

That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes

What more is there to say? It is time for me to step back out into the yard and soak in the view of Snowy Mountain with a mater sandwich in hand.