Are you a gardener?

My daughter, Sarah, and I planted a few toamto plants along the house this spring, as well as a few pepper plants in my mother-in-law’s garden near Cortland.
My mother-in-law, by the way, always has a great garden, much of which she shares with us. I love her spinach salad, made with spinach and green onions straight from her sandy soil.
And I’m eagerly anticipating sweet corn from her first of several plantings.
January Wetzel shoulfd be reporting eports on Page 1A of Wednesday’s edition of The Tribune that more Hoosiers are planting fruits and vegetables this year, partly because of the rising food prices. I’d imagine part of it’s an effort to heat a healthier diet, too.
We love food out of the garden, or from the farmers market or other growers selling their bounty. In case you missed it, January wrote about the Seymour Farmers Market on Monday. You can look it up at TribTown.com.
We always had a garden growing up on the southside of Indianapolis. Pop was a fanatic about growing tomatoes, and Mom planted other vegetables.
I enjoy growing tomatoes, probably because of the connection with Pop. But I really don’t like eating them raw. Pop would eat them like an apple, straight off the vine.
However, I do like tomatoes cooked just about any way imagineable — stewed, in a sauce, in a paste, on pizza or as a soup.
Just don’t ask me to eat them raw. Something about the texture, I think.
Anyway, are you gardening? Share your stories with us online at ddavis@tribtown.com.

Did you know?

Kovenor’s Corner is open for the season.

It was a night of excitement around the Davis house the other night when Karen and girls brought home ice cream the other night. Yes, we’re easily excited, at least when it comes to ice cream.

Summer’s a good time. DQ and Kovener’s are open, but neither are open nearly long enough.

I’ve often grumbled about how late in the spring Kovener’s opens and how early in the fall. Although DQ opens a little earlier and closes a little later, it’s track record on supplying me with ice cream isn’t much better.

I know of no reason for not standing outside either business in the bitter cold for an ice cream treat. I’ll stand in rain in the summer, so why should they think I’d not stand in sleet or snow?

I suppose one could argue that they’d lose their luster if they stayed open all year.

That perhaps we wouldn’t have been as excited about a Kovener’s Corner treat as we were the other night.

That perhaps the pumkin pie Blizzard at DQ wouldn’t be such a treat if we could have it in January or February.

Maybe.

But I wouldn’t mind finding out.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

There’s a tradition in our family — and others, of course — of eating corned beef and cabbage on New Year’s Day. Something about bringing good luck for the new year.

I’m sure if we were from the South, our tradition would include black-eyed peas. That’s what they ate when I lived in Arkansas for 10 years one year, anyway.

I don’t know about you, but I found corned beef briskets in as ready supply in Seymour and Columbus as presidential candidates in the Hoosier state during the primary election season. There were none. Eight grocery stores in two cities yielded a pound of sliced corned beef from the deli of the eighth store.

While Iowans likely spent part of New Year’s Day listening to, running into or dodging presidential hopefuls as their caucus nears Thursday, we Hoosiers — including the lowercase libertarians among us — could only wonder what it’s like to have a candidate visit before the primary election.

Our primary falls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May. This year that’s May 6.

In all likelihood, that means Republican Ron Paul, the most litertarian of candidates in this year’s horserace won’t even be on our ballot let alone make a visit to the state.

It will be interesting to see how Paul, the 10-term representative from Texas, does Thursday in Iowa and whether his libertarian leanings will make an impact in New Hampshire when voters go to the polls Jan. 8.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

The gluttony, that is.

I’m not proud of it, but it has begun.

For breakfast this morning, I had a sausage and cheese sandwich from the Star Promenaders’ booth on Chestnut Street. They’re one of the best deals at Oktoberfest. They’re tasty and inexpensive, at least in comparison to many other sandwiches and other treats for sale.

But breakfast wasn’t my first food purchase of this year’s festival. The Knights of Columbus claimed my first contribution to local charities when I bought a fried gut sandwich following our Jackson County Sertoma Club board meeting at our beer stein booth. OK, it was a grilled bologna sandwich. But we grew up calling bologna “gut,” based on what goes into it. The sandwich was a nice surprise. A little Miracle Whip would have been a nice addition.

Hope to see you downtown over the next three days. Stop by the Sertoma booth and pick up for mug. I’ll be working there from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Downtown Seymour is bustling with activity today.

Vendors are busy setting up their booths, bringing in their supplies and working out logistics before the big show — Oktoberfest — opens its three-day run Thursday morning.

Some vendors could be heard asking to borrow ladders. They were also raising questions about regulations such as LP tanks and fire extinguishers.

Seymour Fire Chief Fred Hines said he learned today that the Indiana General Assembly apparently changed some rules governing such festivals — again — and apparently not everyone in the start heard about them. Hines was looking into those changes, but he said he would expect the Oktoberfest rules to stay in force since the board has not changed them.

When you step into the downtown area, you can start to smell some of the aromas of Oktoberfest. Three vendors — the Boy Scouts, Children’s Miracle Network (Wal-Mart) and the Knights of Columbus — were allowed to sale food and drinks today.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like Oktoberfest. If it was up to our daughter’s, we’d probably live downtown during the festival. We already spend too much time down there each fall.

But I do think if they’re going to disrupt downtown parking after 6 p.m. Tuesday and all day Wednesday, you ought to be able to buy yout favorite treat from whoever’s willing to be ready to roll on Wednesday. Heck, let’s set up on Sunday and start selling on Monday.

Anyway, I hope you’re able to find your way downtown this weekend and enjoy the festival.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

It’s it a sad thing that Kovener’s Corner closes so early every summer, isn’t it?

And you know that Dairy Queen on Tipton Street will be closed for the season before you know it. At least they sell those pumpkin poie Blizzards before they clsoe each year.

What a shame. I know my belly doesn’t need it, but I already miss Kovener’s Corner ice cream cones. They’re among the best treats around.

But maybe because the little shop at Second Street and Emerson Drive is open such a short time each spring and summer is why we enjoy it so much. I can’t imagine their chocolate malt or vanilla cones tasting any worse in December, January or February, however.

But maybe that short season does make us enjoy it a little more than we would if it was open around the year.

I wouldn’t mind being able to find out, though.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Yes, the Jackson County Fair’s over, but what’s your favoite food at the fair?

For years, my have-to-have food at the county fair has been the porkburger from the Jackson County Pork Producers and Cattlemen’s Association. They’re tasty, meaty and filling.

I’ve also been a fan of the lemon shakeups that the Young Farmers sell in the Show Arena, although for some reason they didn’t taste quite the same to me this summer. Maybe the weather wasn’t hot enough.

Last week, though, I expanded my culinary horizons, although some might argue I didn’t move too terribly far, since I mostly stayed within the pork group.

Taking the advice of our 4-H diarist, Luke Schnitker, I tried a breaded tenderloin from the Immanuel Lutheran Church food stand. The breading was light and seasoned just right, and the piece of meat was thick and juicy.

Generally, I prefer breaded tenderloins pounded to the thickness of an anorexic amoeba. Such a pounding provides much more surface area upon which to affix the breading and soak up the fat.

But the thick cutlet of pork at the Immanuel stand was quite good and satisfying.

I also tried out the Nutty Bars at the Psi Iota Beta stand. It was a fairly cool day, at least for the fair, so the nut-covered chocolate coating hung on to the ice cream, which in turn hung onto the stick. No mess and it was tasty.

Hannah, our older daughter, was satisfied again this year as every year with the chicken strips at Immanuel’s stand. How they’re any different from the chicken strips she’s constantly consuming out of our freezer or a fast food joint, I don’t know, but she craves the Immanuel chicken strips at the fair.

Our younger daughter, Sarah, did try something new, however. She hounded us for days to try the cotton candy.

“You won’t like it,” I said. “It’s a pretty yucky.”

But she persisted, and we relented on Thursday night.

What resulted were one taste, one awful look and three words: “Daddy was right.”

Yes, I was right about that, but she still pretty well ignores my advice on what would taste good. Like watermelon. And cantaloupe. And porkburgers. And corn on the cob slathered with butter. And bisquits and gravy (in my family, we thought gravy was a beverage.)

But given my girth, maybe it’s a good thing the girls don’t follow their pop’s taste buds,

Have you read the Summer 2007 edition of “The Hoosier Farmer,” a publication of Indiana Farm Bureau?

The cover story caught my eye — “Hoosier Haute Cuisine.” Food will usually do that with me. Sarah, our younger daughter, tried to sell me last weekend on seeing the new Pixar film, “Ratatouille,” by saying that it would probably be like watching the food channel.

But I digress.

In “The Hoosier Farmer” story, Kathleen M. Dutro wrote about what she described as two important Hoosier foods — ice cream and tenderloin sandwiches.

Ice cream is important because of the amount Hoosier companies churn out — a lot. I love ice cream, but it was the tenderloin that really caught my attention.

Based on my travels, I’d have to agree that tenderloins are pretty much a Hoosier dish, although Dutro points out that Iowans also make the breaded and deep-fried pork sandwich. Read that again — breaded and deep-fried pork. I love the brown food group, and it doesn’t get any better than that.

The thinner and crispier and more seasoned the better.

I have my favorites, both here in Jackson County and elsewhere.

Although Dutro’s story points out Nick’s Kitchen in Huntington, I’ve got to say it isn’t among my top favorites based on when I ate there back in the 1990s while on a job interview with my wife. Nick’s gained some notetriety for its tenderloin when Dan Quayle was selected to be George H.W. Bush’s runningmate in 1988 and the national press corps descended on Huntington. I still have a Nick’s refrigerator magnet from my visit there.

Where do you go when you’re craving a tenderloin? And what do you like on them? Lettuce? Mayo? Pickle? Mustard? Onion? Those are my favorite toppings.

What about ketchup? Sorry, but like hot dogs, tenderloins should NOT be eaten with ketchup. Save ketchup for hamburgers and people who don’t like steak. You know, those who like steak well done and pour ketchup and steak sauce all over them.

Ah, but I digress again. Sorry, but people who ruin beef irritate me.

So, again I ask, who makes your favorite tenderloin?

Thanks for reading TribTown.com, and thanks for reading my blog.

They’re back, and I’m not talking about poltergeists.

Jackson County cantaloupes have arrived for their delicious though all-too-short season. I offer my own thumbs up to Sharon Guthrie of the Jackson Circuit Court’s office for tipping me off on their arrival.

While awaiting a sentencing hearing on Monday afternoon, Sharon mentioned she had bought a county-grown melon that day at Bob and Helen Larhman’s produce stand on U.S. 50 in Brownstown. Sharon was on the money.

The two melons I’ve sampled, OK, devoured, have been great. Part of one will be my dessert tonight as I work the nightshift, preparing the latest postings for TribTown.com and putting together Saturday’s issues of The Tribune.

So far I’ve not found any Jackson County watermelons, although Larhman’s on Friday appeared to have some from
Vincennes.

While attending a week-long business meeting last month in Tempe, Ariz., a few of us from Freedom Communications ate at an Italian joint one night, the one free night that wasn’t devoted to a late dinner and meeting.

The waitress asked we were all from, and when I mentioned Indiana, she asked where. Her boyfriend lives in
Vincennes, she said. The conversation turned to melons. Apparently her boyfriend’s family is in the melon-growing business.

“Vincennes melons are the best,” she said, or something along those lines. I didn’t have my notebook, and I really wasn’t working, although my family thinks I’m always working, regardless of where we’re at or what we’re doing. I nodded my head, saying that, yes, Indiana melons are the best. I politely declined not to add that, although Knox County watermelons and cantaloupes are quite tasty, the title of “best” belongs to those varieties of melons just a bit further east, here in Jackson County.

Melons are still being grown by the field full here in Jackson County, but several of the growers I became somewhat familiar with in my early years here at The Tribune are no longer in the business. They include Orville Lubker of Brownstown, who retired several years ago, and Bob Brewer of the Vallonia area, who recently stopped toiling in the melon fields.

I’m just glad to know others are carrying on the tradition.

Although it’s a farther drive than Lubker’s old market just east of Brownstown on U.S. 50, you can find great watermelons and cantaloupes at stands in the Vallonia area, including those operated by the Tiemeyer and Kamman families. And don’t forget to keep your eyes on the Farmers Market in downtown
Seymour. I found some great melons there last summer.

If you’re new to the area, and recent census numbers show there are more than 900 new folks in
Seymour, and you haven’t discovered the wonderful tastes of our locally grown melons, you’ll have to find some. But the season doesn’t last long, so don’t wait too long.