The Great Tomatoe Exchange

I'm a city girl, born and bred. Long Beach is the fifth largest city in the third largest state in the union. I know nothing about country life. When we bought our last house there was a lime tree in the back yard, and I picked it clean and gave the fruit to the workers that were helping to remodel.  The foreman came back the next morning and said, "Susana, these are not limes, they're naval oranges and you picked them too soon!"  Sheesh.

As I've roamed the blog lists, I've discovered this wonderful world of authentic, every-day country living documented on pages graced with pictures of orchards and farm wagons, clothes lines and barefoot grandbabies, pantry shelves lined with "put-up" stuff, and talk about chickens and goats.  For a while I was a little envious of the quieter, slower paced, less-stressed way of life y'all seem to enjoy.

Then some of my "peeps" came over for a meeting and one of them brought a bowl full of home-grown tomatoes (yup- that's them in the picture).  She was followed later that day by a guy coming by to pick up a TV -  and he left tomatoes.  The next day hubby came in from work with even more, and suggested we make homemade spaghetti sauce.  Soon.  Everyone's growing tomatoes!  It made me realize even city folk long for a bit of the rural; a way to connect back to simpler times, the earth, and opportunities to be neighborly.  We may not have fresh-layed eggs or clothespins, but we have our tomatoes.  I guess if you want country you just have to make your own.

So I've decided I'm going on a quest to find signs of old-fashioned country living - to see my city through a different lens, so to speak.  I'm going to seek out the simple life in the middle of the big city, and listen for conversations about neighborly acts of kindness and friendship.  I'll let you know what I discover.

If you'd like to join me, send a note - and pictures if you have them.  You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and here at The Feathered Nest.  I almost forgot, the mailman still comes by too.  Maybe he has a story.

In the meantime I'm going online to find a recipe for homemade marinara sauce. 

If you can help your neighbor now, don't say, "Come back tomorrow, and then I'll help you." Proverbs 3:28