What Does Summer Taste Like?

Last year on a particularly hot day I wrote a post titled What Does Summer Look Like?  It still gets lots of looks.  Especially lately -- because -- well tomorrow is the first day of summer.  Funny - but in the earlier post about the look of summer, I have a photo of Carl's Custard stand.  If anyplace looks like summer -- it is Carl's!

Today I took another iconic (to me) summer photo...

Again -- it is ice cream.  I am not a big ice cream person -- but on a hot day there is not much better than a little bit of ice cream to cool everything down.  A few days ago when I was shopping I saw these little ice cream containers.  I remember as a child walking across the road with my grandmother to Heflin's store to get a small container of ice cream (always chocolate) and a small wooden paddle-style spoon.  How much fun would it be if the packages of these ice cream cups came with the old style wooden 'spoons?'  It would certainly be a bit more authentic.  For me -- ice cream will always mean summer.

Also in summer it is a time for fresh fruit -- berries, peaches, cherries and more.  I fight blackberry plants in my yard all the time.  They sprout and grown inches overnight.  I try to keep them out of the flower beds but a few always seem to get ahead of me.  Once I see the blooms, I leave them to create fruit for the birds.  Now the fruit is ripe and soon these plants will be pulled and tossed into the woods.  I know it is not the last I see of blackberries in summer.

Something else I think of is the garden.  I spent many hours in the gardens of my grandfathers as a child.  It is still a treat for me to pick and eat a tomato still warm from the sun ripening it.  I have a couple grape tomato plants in my backyard this year.  So far I think I have picked 7 tomatoes -- these are my photo of the day yesterday and they were delicious on my salad last night.

The last thing I think about is something cold to drink.  A very cold beer to sip on as dinner cooks on the grill is a summer treat.  Again -- here is a photo of the day from the 365 Project.  It is hard to believe I have kept up with it and today was day #171!

Happy Summer everyone!