We stopped at a little farm stand in the little town I spent some of my childhood and got a paper bag of green beans, a basket of peaches, and a small basket of tomatoes. My sister wanted to stop and she surprised us with these and got our parents a seedless watermelon.
This little stand has been offering the small community produce for as long as I can remember. It is such a neat set up. . .
The house is right off of a small town road dotted with little family restaurants, garden nurseries, and a gift shop or two. It is a classic, large, white and simple farm house with a generous front porch on a grassy sprawling yard with a large shade tree here and there.
To the side of the house and yard (literally within 30 to 60 seconds of a walk) is the garden. Somehow, the rows and rows and rows of various produce stay neat all summer. The family and sometimes friends... pick the produce and pack them in baskets to walk or drive to the little stand near the road.
It is small and covered with a little roof and shaded by a large oak tree.
Netted bags of Vidalia onions hang from nails on the supporting beams... watermelons line an entire area... velveety GA peaches fill produce baskets and fragrance the air around them. Tomatoes ... with red and glossy skins give an artistic look to the whole scene.
People, local as well as tourists, pull onto the little gravel and dirt beaten area off of the road.
A smiling teen (granddaughter) fills bags and tells you things like... the green beans were picked minutes before. She tells the prices as different voices ask.
Each time we leave... we look forward to the next time we go back.
Yesterday's lunch was green beans, pan-fried yellow squash, lima beans, shredded WOK fried cabbage, tomato slices salted and peppered, and buttered bread. What produce didn't come from the little stand was from another local garden. It was all served with iced lemon water I made up in the fridge at the first part of the day.
Green Beans
Someone brought or left a package of salted fat back or pork something or another. I don't eat pork and haven't in a long time (long story) but most of my family does. I sliced this into a little smaller than bite sized pieces and added it to the prepared green beans (washed, ends broken off and the large beans broken in three pieces) and added water just until I saw the water through the beans. I learned to not cover all vegetables when cooking by Mamaw. She is known for the best squash dish around and she showed me how to make it in her kitchen one day.
I wrote about that in a previous post or a hand written journal so I won't repeat it all for now.
Anyway, I remembered what she said about filling the water just to the point of being able to see it. I did this with the green beans and added the fat back pieces and set the eye to high. As soon as it reached boiling, I covered it and adjusted the heat to low.
I wanted to keep a slow simmer until they were fully cooked so I went from low to medium low as needed. The timer was set for 20 minutes and about half way through, I took the lid off and added sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
I added about 5 minutes cooking time and the beans were so wonderful!
I used a sharp knife to shred the cabbage and cooked it in a WOK on high until just how I wanted it. I added butter because I am out of all oil! This was a tremendous win for the two teen girls who finished the last of it off.
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