Homegrown Love in Water Valley

The humble Mississippi homegrown tomato: pure, honest, and sacred. The essence of a Deep South summer.  Good tomatoes are one of the things that unifies us Southerners. Despite the many differences we can have on religion, politics, and who makes the best fried chicken - we can all agree on the importance of homegrown tomatoes.

Bless-your-heart church ladies; seersucker wearing city lawyers; bar stool perched townabouts; and Slim the Crappie Man are all willing to risk heat stroke and possible limb loss - as copperhead snakes are known to love a good tomato patch - to grow the perfect tomato.

I actually know a local lawyer who straight up got tagged on the ankle by his "pet" copperhead while weeding his tomatoes in the garden one summer evening. No worries - he was fine. It was a flesh wound and did not slow his roll one bit: the man was back in the tomato game the next day. 

What's a little snake bite compared to boasting rights and chest-puffing with the menfolk over fertilizer at the local feed and seed? Or the shameless lovestruck gaze coming from the beloved blue-haired old ladies on the baking aisle at the Piggly Wiggly? Risk versus reward, people.

At The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery in Water Valley, we sell Hal Vaughn's tomatoes. The average Hal tomato weighs in at 1 pound. They are fleshy and meaty, red-ripened in the field after being sun-kissed before being handpicked by Hal himself. I call them "love apples."

There is an intoxicating aroma that fills the room, awakening all your senses into a state of euphoria as you run a knife through the fleshy skin: the first tomato sandwich of the year.  It can only be described as ambrosia - food of the gods.

Have you ever seen a sweet little grandma put a full-on linebacker move on one of the local church deacons as she uses her grocery cart as a weapon?   I have, during tomato season and specifically to get one of Hal's Love Apple Tomatoes.

The BTC sells on average 1500 - 2000 pounds of Hal's tomatoes each year, and, by "year," I mean the month and a half that is tomato season. It's no joke. I wonder if Hal knows he has a following of gangster grandmas that would rival Beyonce's Beyhive.

A frenzy happens each year at the BTC when Hal starts bringing his love apple tomatoes into the store for us to sell. Folks in Water Valley know his truck, and they also know that Hal grows the best tomato in the State of Mississippi and probably some of the best in the country.

I would push all my money to the center of the table to bet on Hal's tomatoes at any fairground, festival, or backyard tomato growing contest. The old-timers say "scared money never wins" - a classic Southern saying. 

Clearly, whoever came up with this adage must have been holding one of Hal's tomatoes in his hands as he spoke those words.