With the bounty of summer comes the amazing tastes of fresh produce. Sweet juicy peaches that ooze down your chin. Corn on the cob dripping with butter. Ripe red tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, radishes, the list goes on. However, there are some summer flavors, like strawberries and grapes that seem to transport me back in time.
Certain strawberries, such as ones picked fresh at a local farm, have such a different flavor than store bought. They are typically smaller but packed with so much more taste. Often when I eat one of those strawberries I am instantly reminded of my grandfather Ludwick and his strawberry patch. I remember when I was about 4 or 5 years old, how my grandpap took me and my brother to look at his strawberries that were growing in his garden a few yards from his patio. There were tiny red fruit on the vines that covered the ground and my grandfather allowed us to pick one and eat it. The flavor was spectacular; just thinking about it now, I can almost taste it.
The concord grape is another fruit that takes me back to my youth when we would go see my Aunts Susie, Sally and Mil. Throughout the year my family visited my aunts on North 11th street in Indiana PA. During the summer, especially when other cousins were also there, we would all play outside. We played tag and other games, but when the grape vine was full of purple grapes, we would always take a few minutes to break from whatever game we were involved in, and pull a couple of the ripe fruit off the vine to savor.
To this day when I taste a concord grape, a quick succession of sensations of when I was 5 years old sweep through my mind. I am standing in my aunts’ backyard. There is a garden with tomatoes and other vegetables off to the side. The apple tree is behind me. In front of me is the grape vine which towers above me. It’s a warm summer day and I pull a few grapes off the vine to taste. I bite into one. That first break of the skin releases a blast of sweet grape flavor. The flesh of the grape releases from the skin. The trick is to get the seeds out before swallowing the chewy center. Then there is the slightly bitter, yet flavorful skin; sometimes it can be tough, and might be discarded after all the flavor is drawn from it.
A few memories of me and my cousins resuming play after our little refreshment linger in my mind. We might attempt to climb the apple tree in back or the pine trees in front. Or run up the street to the dead end where the tall trees seem to make a tiny forest and roam the perimeter of this wooded area before being called in for a treat baked by my Aunt Mil, like a slice of a homemade apple or berry pie.
Other summer foods occasionally elicit a recollection. A really ripe tomato, sliced thick with a pinch of salt makes me think of my dad who often grew tomatoes; a tomato fresh off the vine cannot be beat. A tender ear of corn with lots of butter makes me recall being fifteen and working one summer for six weeks on a farm, doing various chores including picking and selling corn at a roadside stand out in the blazing sun, and sometimes at the end of the day being treated to a delightful dinner, including, of course, fresh picked corn. And berry pie—sometimes it conjures an image of a 3 year old me at my aunts’ house, and my Aunt Mil giving me a second helping of her homemade pie, with ice cream!
Some scientists have conducted studies on the link between memory and taste—as well as smell—and how these can remind one of his childhood. I can attest that some of these summer foods can give me a taste of being five again. I enjoy lots of the fresh summer crops, not just those that invoke memories. As for concord grapes, I must admit they are not at the top of my list, so I do not often eat them. Unless, that is, I want to be transported back to my aunts’ backyard, carefree and enjoying the sun and fresh air of a summer day at the tender age of five.
Relatively Speaking Blog 