July 12, 2024 • 22 mins
Brent's taking us back to the tomato fields of his youth. You'll hear how he spent a lot of his summers battling the heat on his family's South Arkansas farm and he'll tell about an epic adventure he and two others set out on that didn't quite go as planned. We know. Big surprise, right? Thankfully, the participants are all still here and Brent's sharing their story on this week's episode of MeatEater's This Country Life podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves
from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
I want you to stay a while as I share
my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented
by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
the best outdoor podcast the airways had off. All right, friends,
(00:28):
grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
stories to share. Spotlights, pink tomatoes, and bold corrections. I
come from what some refer to as the Land of
tall Pines and pink tomatoes. It's a reference to the
(00:50):
logging and farming industry that part of Arkansas was known for.
It was a great place to grow up, and I'm
going to tell you a little about the pink tomato
portion of it. But first I'm going to tell you
a story. It was a simple mission, catch them where
(01:13):
they weren't allowed to be. We knew the adversary, we
knew where they operated, we knew how they operated. Careful
observation had revealed their numbers, along with how they infielded
xfield from the area of operations into hours. They made
no attempt at concealing the trails they used or even
(01:34):
bothered to wipe out their tracks, and that's where we
had the advantage. We knew how they would come and
go and when they were most likely to do it.
Their advantage was speed and their ability to operate in
low light. They were masters of nighttime operations. Their night
vision was generations above our own, and while the mission
(01:57):
was simple, it was anything but easily accomplished. Also, they
didn't have vehicles we did. That would prove to be
our greatest asset in closing in on our adversary and
our biggest liability by not knowing the terrain as well
as we should have. The scattering reports we had about
(02:19):
the lay of the lamb had been falsified, and it
wound up costing us a third of our strength. It
was around twenty three hundred dollars when we moved out.
It was early fall of nineteen seventy nine. My brother
Tim climbed into the driver's seat of his nineteen sixty
nine Ford truck. Sammy West, our lifelong family friend who
(02:43):
Tim had grown up with, and I climbed into the
bed and stood up next to the cab facing forward.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
He was holding the spotlight.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I was holding the rope. There were deer in the
pea patch, and we were fixing the last old one.
That was our mission. As in any good story, you
have to lay a foundation of where the story takes place,
and this one was on our farm where we grew up.
(03:15):
Tim was married and lived just down the road. I
was in junior high school. Our middle brother, Chuck was
in college, still living at home, and he wasn't there
that night, but he would play an important role in
the outcome of events. The summer before, he'd grown a
patch of watermelons and had sold him for extra money.
(03:35):
They were good, and I helped him pick some and
haul them to town to sell. He paid me in
watermelon hearts. You know the good part. I'd work for
that now. Well that in case pocket knives, But that's
not important. What is important is that after the watermelons
were done, he was supposed to take a tractor over
there and disc up the hills and run a section
(03:57):
hard over it to smooth out the dirt. He said
he did it, and the field had grown up since
he'd retired from the watermelon business the year before. It
looked like every other acre over there that didn't have
peas and tomatoes growing in it weeds that stood about
waist high.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's all you saw. Well.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
That night we eased across the pond livey, headed toward
the pea patch with our lights off. The moon was
bright enough for Tim to see without him, and when
we got close enough to the pea patch, Samy shined
that spotlight, and we were looking at a field full
of white tailed deer staring back at us, their mouths
chewing on peas, and their bellies getting fuller with each bite.
(04:38):
Tim mashed the foot feed and the race was on.
Ten to fifteen deer took off in every direction out
of that pea patch, and they made their way across
that waste high weeds of the field that hadn't been planted.
The one we were closest to was burning and churning
towards the gap in the fence that separated the pea
patch from.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
The Tamato field.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Most of the other deer just jumped the fence, but
this one, this one understood the assignment and was beee
lining it toward the gap, breaking through the weeds like
a crab boat and the barre and sea going through ice.
Tim closed the gap when he saw Sammy's light zero
in on that.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Fine special Anom dol dough. Now I moved around to
Sammy's right.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Now I leaned against the cab to steady myself as
we plowed through the weeds, and I ready my rope
as we got closer. The deer was now within the
easy roping distance off the right front bumper. We were
doing every bit of twenty five miles an hour, and
it was going to be two turns above my head
and on the third one I was going to have
that deer rope faster.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Than Roy Cooper could have done it.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Here we go, rope ready, one turn, two turns, and
all of a sudden, the truck started bucking up and
down bott the lend. The spotlight went out. It got
dark quick. Tim hadn't bothered to turn the headlights on
a truck. It wouldn't have done any good anyway. The
weeds were taller than the light. I grabbed onto the
(06:02):
cab and I looked over at Sammy, but Sammy was gone,
so was the light. I started beating on the cab
of the truck and yelling for Tim to stop.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Stop, stop, a process.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
He'd already initiated upon being bounced around in the cab
this truck like a bean in a coffee can. The
truck came to an abrupt stop, and Tim jumped out
and looking back at us, well where us had been
that had been reduced to looking at me, and I hollered,
Sammy's gone. Tim said, where'd he go? I said, I
don't know, but he took the light with him. Tim yelled, Sammy, Sammy.
(06:38):
We heard a faint voice from the middle of the
field behind us say I'm over here. I jumped down
this truck and we made our way through the weeds,
only to meet Sammy walking towards us, still holding onto
the spotlight with the wires that had been ripped from
the battery posts. Tim said, what happened? Sammy said, Brent
(07:00):
pushed me out of the truck. I said, no, I didn't.
I was fixing the rope that deer when the truck
started bouncing and the light went out. I looked around
and you was gone. That's when we knew. That's when
we figured it out. That's when Tim, Sammy and I
started a trio, of course, and disparaged monologues about our
(07:22):
brother Chuck for not disking and leveling that watermelon patch.
Like he said he did. Truth be told, he probably
he probably saved us all from getting our butts kicked
by a roped whitetailed dough. I don't know what we'd
have done had I actually roped it, but Sammy was
(07:43):
uninjured and I never got another chance to rope. Chuck
never leveled that watermelon patch either, And that's just how
that happened.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Gardens.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Nothing spread hate and discontent quicker than your parents saying
it'll be good to have you out of school to
help with the garden this summer garden. Ain't got time
for no garden. Well about all those tomatoes growing in
that big field across the pond. That ain't enough gardening
for y'all. With the love of humanity. There's frogs to gigging,
fish to catch, swimming holes that jump in, and camp
(08:27):
outs with my friends. I ain't got no time for
no garden. On top of the kabellion acres the tomatoes
we already had growing, and i'd be struggling in half
the summer anyway. Actually, the most we ever had was
about five acres, but it seemed like a kabellion. Turns
out I did have the time after all. But I
(08:49):
didn't like it. My friends that lived in town didn't
have to suffer through all this nonsense. They were all
racked up in the air conditioning, watching Bob Barker and
waiting on the YMCA pool open up so they could
all meet up and swim in that chlorinated clear water
urinal me. I was stuck in the middle of our farm,
praying for rain to a cloudless sky and sticking tomato
(09:11):
sticks in the ground and wishing I was dead. Don't
get me wrong, I love tomatoes, and the tomatoes that
were developed specifically for the soil where I'm from and
grown in my hometown are second to none. Some of
you may have just rolled your eyeballs out of the
back of your head and jerked a creak in your
(09:31):
neck looking at the radio when I made that claim,
Like last summer, when I received all kinds of watermelon feedback.
When I talked about watermelons, you didn't mention this town,
or that town, or this type of watermelon, And they
were right.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I was merely talking about the places I knew of
that proclaimed themselves to be the watermelon capitals of the world.
There can be several that hold that title, you got
the biggest watermelons in the world, you got the place
with the most produced watermelons in the world, et cetera,
et cetera. But when it comes to tomatoes, there's only
(10:09):
one tomato and only one place, and that's the variety
grown in Bradley County, Arkansas, and aptly named the Bradley Tomato.
This deliciously mildly acidic fruit or vegetable depending on which
camp you're in, stands alone at the pinnacle of the
(10:29):
Tomato Hall of Fame due to taste alone, period, there
are none better, save your emails, calls, letters, and bomb threads.
I will not budge from this position of how far
hit and shoulders above all other varieties of tomatoes there are.
And believe it or not, there are more than ten
thousand different varieties available today to grow. Ten thousand plus.
(10:54):
That's more than twice the amount of people who live
in Warren, Arkansas, the county seat the place where some
of the most dedicated and frustrated educators of all time
attempted to learn me stuff, and home to the Pink
Tomato Festival, a hometown event that's been going on annually.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
For the last sixty eight years.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
It's always held on the second Friday of June and
the last all weekend with events and entertainment for the
whole family, music, art and crafts, games, lots of great
food in one event that don't have anymore and and
haven't had for quite some time. But it was quite
(11:35):
popular back when I was the mere slip of a
lad I am today, and that was the tobacco spitting contest.
You heard me right, If that ain't good, if that
ain't good enough for you, It was open to all ages.
I remember seeing my pals in the sixth grade competing,
but I was terrified someone would tell my mama, so
(11:56):
I abstained from competition, never fully realizing my potential is
a tobacco spitting athlete. They had a big sheet of
plastic about three feet wide and rolled out on the
courthouse lawn that was printed like a big tape measure.
Contestants would get a big cheer of tobacco or dipper snuff,
and once they built up a sufficient reservoir tobacco juice,
(12:19):
they'd let her fly and whomever spat the farthest one.
I don't remember what the trophy was, but I do
remember them giving out free samples to anybody that wanted them.
Good Lord, those were different times, and times changed, and
this time they changed for the better. You won't see
that contest there anymore, but you will see a lot
(12:42):
of good stuff there, and you should check it out
if you have the opportunity. But back to the Bradley
tomato for just a second. In nineteen sixty one, at
the University of Arkansas, doctor Joe mcfaerir and, at the
age of forty four, developed the Bradley tomato plant to
grow specifically in the soil and the humid climate found
in Bradley County in June. All my life I heard
(13:06):
folks talk about how cool it was that that specific
tomato plant that produced the epitome of the tea in
BLT was developed and named after Bradley County. And now
for fifty eight years, I've heard nothing different. Bradley tomato
developed by the University of Arkansas for Bradley County in
(13:26):
the story. Then I did a little research for some
background on doctor mcfarren, who passed away thirteen years ago
in twenty eleven. He had an identical twin brother named Jack.
He was a decorated veteran of World War Two and
also served in Korea. His mama's name was Alis and
his father's name was Bradley. What a coincidence. Maybe his
(13:52):
dad changed it to Bradley after he had a bite
of one and experienced just how good they are.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
But that line of thinking is.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Really because I'd be known as fried squirrel gritz reeves. Anyway,
the tomatoes are good, and towards the end of May
every year, my social media is festooned with folks from
my hometown talking about who's got Bradley's and the out
of town folks are wanting to know when someone is
headed north with a load. Now, you can get a
(14:20):
blt in just about any place that serves hot food,
bacon lets, tomato, and bread. It's as simple as that,
and there are as many ways to fix one as
you can think of. You can put cheese or onion
and potato chips, this kind of bread, that kind of bread.
There's no limit to what you can do. But until
you've had one in the combination, any combination with a
(14:43):
Bradley tomato, you'll never really know the festival of flavor
your taste buds will experience. It's like fried chicken. I
love fried chicken, and I don't care if it comes
from KFC, churches, Pope Eyes, cracker barrel, your house, or
the hospital.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
It's all good, but nothing will ever come close to
your grandma's fried chicken. The Bradley tomato is your grandma's
fried chicken compared to everything else calling itself a tomato. Now,
there were a few perks to grow in tomatoes. When
the tomato market opened the area of farmers would haul
the tomatoes to town for auction.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
At the fairgrounds.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Produced buyers from out of state had seasonal offices there,
and the farmers would line up early to get inside
when the gate opened. Then pickup trucks, cattle trailers, and
bob trucks would back up to a long covered concrete
slab about the length of commercial chicken house. Each truck
was backed into an individual parking spot. With them a
big wooden table where each grower would set out a
(15:46):
sample of his tomatoes for the buyers to bid on.
As they falled, an auctioneer around from table to table.
The only air moving in that blistering asphalt melting heat
was the big industrial fans mounted in the rafters that
blew the hot air from one end of the tomatoes
shed to the other, but at least it was moving.
(16:07):
Not being one of the first to feel the many
slots meant you had to wait in a shadeless line
until one of the slots opened up. It made for
a long, hot day, but it beat the tomato fields
by long shot. Also, a lot of my friends would
be there. Some of them had farms and grew tomatoes too,
and some worked up at the packing shed. A lot
(16:27):
of the girls whose family didn't raise tomatoes that I
went to school with would get summer jobs packing tomatoes
up there. That place was full of pretty gals, and
me and my cohorts frequently patrolling that location while we
waited our turn to sell tomatoes. That was just a coincidence.
But folks worked hard raising tomatoes. There wasn't any easy
(16:49):
thing about it. From driving steaks tied up to plants
so they wouldn't fall over, to running the irrigation pipe,
spraying for bugs, actually picking them. It was hot, back
bending works work that would have you in bed early
at night and asleep before your head hit the pillow,
just to get up the next morning before daylight and
do it all over again. There's not many of my
(17:11):
friends that don't have war stories about the tomato fields
of our youth. But you could always get a job
in the summer, and at least it wasn't houling hay ooh,
hauling hay. I maybe having a flashback just thinking about it.
Tomatoes were sold by the lug. That's a box to
all you folks not raised in tomato country, and the
lug averages about thirty pounds A fella could get a
(17:34):
pretty good workout handling tomatoes because just like hey, you
had to handle it more than once. Had to pick them,
load them up, box them up, and load them at
the farm, unload them at the tomato shed. After the
soul buyers bit against each other and the highest bitter
bought the whole load of what was represented on the table.
It was hot, it was stressful, and some families were
(17:56):
depending on what the tomato crop brought as they substantial
portion of their yearly income. I remember once when the
market was down or on occasion, it was rumored that
the buyers had conspired together to keep the prices load
to increase their profit. Now I don't know if that
happened or not, but the farmer wasn't being paid enough
(18:18):
to cover the cost of the expense of planting, growing, harvesting,
and what the buyer offered was an absolute insult to
the folks that had labored day after day to bring
the best produce to market. After all, the grocery store
prices hadn't fallen in relation to what the farmer was
being paid, nor had the cost of producing them. And
(18:38):
I saw it explode one day as we waited our
turn to sell, and seeing the ones before us getting
pennies on the dollar for their invested labor. In one
of the purported buyer conspiracy times. My mama was worrying stress,
knowing the bad news that was coming when I was sold.
But this one farmer, he made a statement. He pulled
(18:59):
his truck co working the shed and dump the whole
load in the middle of the fairgrounds. Regardless of how
you feel about it, right or wrong or indifferent, he'd
made a stand. He'd rather throw them away than be
insulted with what they were offering. Several others followed, not
but nothing, there's too but refusing to sell them to
those buyers at that price, and they seld them themselves
(19:23):
as best as they could. That's a prime example of
our inherent freedom to protest and take a stand against
something that you feeled is wrong. And I doubt it
solved anything other than letting off some steam. But don't
be afraid to make a Bowld correction. That was instruction
given to me in ait at Fortsaille, Oklahoma, in nineteen
(19:45):
eighty seven by an instructor in reference to adjusting artillery
fire onto the target. Don't be afraid to make a
Bowld correction. I've never forgotten that, and I've used it
as advice for my life. I've had more than one
bold correction in my life to make, and I'm thankful
I did, and I'm ever.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Vigilant for the next one.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
If you take one thing away from this episode today,
where I went down more rabbit holes than one of
George Pennington's champion beagles, let it be that one. Make
a bold correction when necessary, stand up for yourself, fix
yourself when you need to fix it, don't be scared
to do it. I'm so glad you allowed me the
(20:31):
time to run around between years this week, and I
hope I didn't step on anything important.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I get several messages from folks about supporting the show
and what we're doing, and the best way to do
that is by checking out the sponsors. You hear us
reading ads for it really does make a difference and
has a direct impact thanks to y'all it reached out
about it. Also, y'all scooed on over and subscribe to
the new Media to Podcast Network channel on YouTube. From
(21:00):
the meat Eater channel, you'll be able to hear all
your favorite podcasts and see all the ones that are
being filmed. We just started filming the Bear Grease Render episodes,
which is pretty cool. Now this country life isn't slated
for filming and who wants to watch me stare at
a microphone while struggling to read the stuff I wrote
doing take after take. But we've got some other stuff
(21:23):
we're working on that will be included that I hope
you'll enjoy, and on that channel is where you'll see
it eventually. One more thing, This heat is rough on
folks and pets. Try to make some time to check
on them, any and all of them that might be
affected by these high temperatures. Take them a drink of
water and some tomatoes. Bradley's if you have the means
(21:45):
until next week. This is Brent Reid signing off.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Y'all be careful.
Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves
from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
I want you to stay a while as I share
my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented
by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
the best outdoor podcast the airways had off. All right, friends,
(00:28):
grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
stories to share. Spotlights, pink tomatoes, and bold corrections. I
come from what some refer to as the Land of
tall Pines and pink tomatoes. It's a reference to the
(00:50):
logging and farming industry that part of Arkansas was known for.
It was a great place to grow up, and I'm
going to tell you a little about the pink tomato
portion of it. But first I'm going to tell you
a story. It was a simple mission, catch them where
(01:13):
they weren't allowed to be. We knew the adversary, we
knew where they operated, we knew how they operated. Careful
observation had revealed their numbers, along with how they infielded
xfield from the area of operations into hours. They made
no attempt at concealing the trails they used or even
(01:34):
bothered to wipe out their tracks, and that's where we
had the advantage. We knew how they would come and
go and when they were most likely to do it.
Their advantage was speed and their ability to operate in
low light. They were masters of nighttime operations. Their night
vision was generations above our own, and while the mission
(01:57):
was simple, it was anything but easily accomplished. Also, they
didn't have vehicles we did. That would prove to be
our greatest asset in closing in on our adversary and
our biggest liability by not knowing the terrain as well
as we should have. The scattering reports we had about
(02:19):
the lay of the lamb had been falsified, and it
wound up costing us a third of our strength. It
was around twenty three hundred dollars when we moved out.
It was early fall of nineteen seventy nine. My brother
Tim climbed into the driver's seat of his nineteen sixty
nine Ford truck. Sammy West, our lifelong family friend who
(02:43):
Tim had grown up with, and I climbed into the
bed and stood up next to the cab facing forward.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
He was holding the spotlight.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I was holding the rope. There were deer in the
pea patch, and we were fixing the last old one.
That was our mission. As in any good story, you
have to lay a foundation of where the story takes place,
and this one was on our farm where we grew up.
(03:15):
Tim was married and lived just down the road. I
was in junior high school. Our middle brother, Chuck was
in college, still living at home, and he wasn't there
that night, but he would play an important role in
the outcome of events. The summer before, he'd grown a
patch of watermelons and had sold him for extra money.
(03:35):
They were good, and I helped him pick some and
haul them to town to sell. He paid me in
watermelon hearts. You know the good part. I'd work for
that now. Well that in case pocket knives, But that's
not important. What is important is that after the watermelons
were done, he was supposed to take a tractor over
there and disc up the hills and run a section
(03:57):
hard over it to smooth out the dirt. He said
he did it, and the field had grown up since
he'd retired from the watermelon business the year before. It
looked like every other acre over there that didn't have
peas and tomatoes growing in it weeds that stood about
waist high.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's all you saw. Well.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
That night we eased across the pond livey, headed toward
the pea patch with our lights off. The moon was
bright enough for Tim to see without him, and when
we got close enough to the pea patch, Samy shined
that spotlight, and we were looking at a field full
of white tailed deer staring back at us, their mouths
chewing on peas, and their bellies getting fuller with each bite.
(04:38):
Tim mashed the foot feed and the race was on.
Ten to fifteen deer took off in every direction out
of that pea patch, and they made their way across
that waste high weeds of the field that hadn't been planted.
The one we were closest to was burning and churning
towards the gap in the fence that separated the pea
patch from.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
The Tamato field.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Most of the other deer just jumped the fence, but
this one, this one understood the assignment and was beee
lining it toward the gap, breaking through the weeds like
a crab boat and the barre and sea going through ice.
Tim closed the gap when he saw Sammy's light zero
in on that.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Fine special Anom dol dough. Now I moved around to
Sammy's right.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Now I leaned against the cab to steady myself as
we plowed through the weeds, and I ready my rope
as we got closer. The deer was now within the
easy roping distance off the right front bumper. We were
doing every bit of twenty five miles an hour, and
it was going to be two turns above my head
and on the third one I was going to have
that deer rope faster.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Than Roy Cooper could have done it.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Here we go, rope ready, one turn, two turns, and
all of a sudden, the truck started bucking up and
down bott the lend. The spotlight went out. It got
dark quick. Tim hadn't bothered to turn the headlights on
a truck. It wouldn't have done any good anyway. The
weeds were taller than the light. I grabbed onto the
(06:02):
cab and I looked over at Sammy, but Sammy was gone,
so was the light. I started beating on the cab
of the truck and yelling for Tim to stop.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Stop, stop, a process.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
He'd already initiated upon being bounced around in the cab
this truck like a bean in a coffee can. The
truck came to an abrupt stop, and Tim jumped out
and looking back at us, well where us had been
that had been reduced to looking at me, and I hollered,
Sammy's gone. Tim said, where'd he go? I said, I
don't know, but he took the light with him. Tim yelled, Sammy, Sammy.
(06:38):
We heard a faint voice from the middle of the
field behind us say I'm over here. I jumped down
this truck and we made our way through the weeds,
only to meet Sammy walking towards us, still holding onto
the spotlight with the wires that had been ripped from
the battery posts. Tim said, what happened? Sammy said, Brent
(07:00):
pushed me out of the truck. I said, no, I didn't.
I was fixing the rope that deer when the truck
started bouncing and the light went out. I looked around
and you was gone. That's when we knew. That's when
we figured it out. That's when Tim, Sammy and I
started a trio, of course, and disparaged monologues about our
(07:22):
brother Chuck for not disking and leveling that watermelon patch.
Like he said he did. Truth be told, he probably
he probably saved us all from getting our butts kicked
by a roped whitetailed dough. I don't know what we'd
have done had I actually roped it, but Sammy was
(07:43):
uninjured and I never got another chance to rope. Chuck
never leveled that watermelon patch either, And that's just how
that happened.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Gardens.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Nothing spread hate and discontent quicker than your parents saying
it'll be good to have you out of school to
help with the garden this summer garden. Ain't got time
for no garden. Well about all those tomatoes growing in
that big field across the pond. That ain't enough gardening
for y'all. With the love of humanity. There's frogs to gigging,
fish to catch, swimming holes that jump in, and camp
(08:27):
outs with my friends. I ain't got no time for
no garden. On top of the kabellion acres the tomatoes
we already had growing, and i'd be struggling in half
the summer anyway. Actually, the most we ever had was
about five acres, but it seemed like a kabellion. Turns
out I did have the time after all. But I
(08:49):
didn't like it. My friends that lived in town didn't
have to suffer through all this nonsense. They were all
racked up in the air conditioning, watching Bob Barker and
waiting on the YMCA pool open up so they could
all meet up and swim in that chlorinated clear water
urinal me. I was stuck in the middle of our farm,
praying for rain to a cloudless sky and sticking tomato
(09:11):
sticks in the ground and wishing I was dead. Don't
get me wrong, I love tomatoes, and the tomatoes that
were developed specifically for the soil where I'm from and
grown in my hometown are second to none. Some of
you may have just rolled your eyeballs out of the
back of your head and jerked a creak in your
(09:31):
neck looking at the radio when I made that claim,
Like last summer, when I received all kinds of watermelon feedback.
When I talked about watermelons, you didn't mention this town,
or that town, or this type of watermelon, And they
were right.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I was merely talking about the places I knew of
that proclaimed themselves to be the watermelon capitals of the world.
There can be several that hold that title, you got
the biggest watermelons in the world, you got the place
with the most produced watermelons in the world, et cetera,
et cetera. But when it comes to tomatoes, there's only
(10:09):
one tomato and only one place, and that's the variety
grown in Bradley County, Arkansas, and aptly named the Bradley Tomato.
This deliciously mildly acidic fruit or vegetable depending on which
camp you're in, stands alone at the pinnacle of the
(10:29):
Tomato Hall of Fame due to taste alone, period, there
are none better, save your emails, calls, letters, and bomb threads.
I will not budge from this position of how far
hit and shoulders above all other varieties of tomatoes there are.
And believe it or not, there are more than ten
thousand different varieties available today to grow. Ten thousand plus.
(10:54):
That's more than twice the amount of people who live
in Warren, Arkansas, the county seat the place where some
of the most dedicated and frustrated educators of all time
attempted to learn me stuff, and home to the Pink
Tomato Festival, a hometown event that's been going on annually.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
For the last sixty eight years.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
It's always held on the second Friday of June and
the last all weekend with events and entertainment for the
whole family, music, art and crafts, games, lots of great
food in one event that don't have anymore and and
haven't had for quite some time. But it was quite
(11:35):
popular back when I was the mere slip of a
lad I am today, and that was the tobacco spitting contest.
You heard me right, If that ain't good, if that
ain't good enough for you, It was open to all ages.
I remember seeing my pals in the sixth grade competing,
but I was terrified someone would tell my mama, so
(11:56):
I abstained from competition, never fully realizing my potential is
a tobacco spitting athlete. They had a big sheet of
plastic about three feet wide and rolled out on the
courthouse lawn that was printed like a big tape measure.
Contestants would get a big cheer of tobacco or dipper snuff,
and once they built up a sufficient reservoir tobacco juice,
(12:19):
they'd let her fly and whomever spat the farthest one.
I don't remember what the trophy was, but I do
remember them giving out free samples to anybody that wanted them.
Good Lord, those were different times, and times changed, and
this time they changed for the better. You won't see
that contest there anymore, but you will see a lot
(12:42):
of good stuff there, and you should check it out
if you have the opportunity. But back to the Bradley
tomato for just a second. In nineteen sixty one, at
the University of Arkansas, doctor Joe mcfaerir and, at the
age of forty four, developed the Bradley tomato plant to
grow specifically in the soil and the humid climate found
in Bradley County in June. All my life I heard
(13:06):
folks talk about how cool it was that that specific
tomato plant that produced the epitome of the tea in
BLT was developed and named after Bradley County. And now
for fifty eight years, I've heard nothing different. Bradley tomato
developed by the University of Arkansas for Bradley County in
(13:26):
the story. Then I did a little research for some
background on doctor mcfarren, who passed away thirteen years ago
in twenty eleven. He had an identical twin brother named Jack.
He was a decorated veteran of World War Two and
also served in Korea. His mama's name was Alis and
his father's name was Bradley. What a coincidence. Maybe his
(13:52):
dad changed it to Bradley after he had a bite
of one and experienced just how good they are.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
But that line of thinking is.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Really because I'd be known as fried squirrel gritz reeves. Anyway,
the tomatoes are good, and towards the end of May
every year, my social media is festooned with folks from
my hometown talking about who's got Bradley's and the out
of town folks are wanting to know when someone is
headed north with a load. Now, you can get a
(14:20):
blt in just about any place that serves hot food,
bacon lets, tomato, and bread. It's as simple as that,
and there are as many ways to fix one as
you can think of. You can put cheese or onion
and potato chips, this kind of bread, that kind of bread.
There's no limit to what you can do. But until
you've had one in the combination, any combination with a
(14:43):
Bradley tomato, you'll never really know the festival of flavor
your taste buds will experience. It's like fried chicken. I
love fried chicken, and I don't care if it comes
from KFC, churches, Pope Eyes, cracker barrel, your house, or
the hospital.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
It's all good, but nothing will ever come close to
your grandma's fried chicken. The Bradley tomato is your grandma's
fried chicken compared to everything else calling itself a tomato. Now,
there were a few perks to grow in tomatoes. When
the tomato market opened the area of farmers would haul
the tomatoes to town for auction.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
At the fairgrounds.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Produced buyers from out of state had seasonal offices there,
and the farmers would line up early to get inside
when the gate opened. Then pickup trucks, cattle trailers, and
bob trucks would back up to a long covered concrete
slab about the length of commercial chicken house. Each truck
was backed into an individual parking spot. With them a
big wooden table where each grower would set out a
(15:46):
sample of his tomatoes for the buyers to bid on.
As they falled, an auctioneer around from table to table.
The only air moving in that blistering asphalt melting heat
was the big industrial fans mounted in the rafters that
blew the hot air from one end of the tomatoes
shed to the other, but at least it was moving.
(16:07):
Not being one of the first to feel the many
slots meant you had to wait in a shadeless line
until one of the slots opened up. It made for
a long, hot day, but it beat the tomato fields
by long shot. Also, a lot of my friends would
be there. Some of them had farms and grew tomatoes too,
and some worked up at the packing shed. A lot
(16:27):
of the girls whose family didn't raise tomatoes that I
went to school with would get summer jobs packing tomatoes
up there. That place was full of pretty gals, and
me and my cohorts frequently patrolling that location while we
waited our turn to sell tomatoes. That was just a coincidence.
But folks worked hard raising tomatoes. There wasn't any easy
(16:49):
thing about it. From driving steaks tied up to plants
so they wouldn't fall over, to running the irrigation pipe,
spraying for bugs, actually picking them. It was hot, back
bending works work that would have you in bed early
at night and asleep before your head hit the pillow,
just to get up the next morning before daylight and
do it all over again. There's not many of my
(17:11):
friends that don't have war stories about the tomato fields
of our youth. But you could always get a job
in the summer, and at least it wasn't houling hay ooh,
hauling hay. I maybe having a flashback just thinking about it.
Tomatoes were sold by the lug. That's a box to
all you folks not raised in tomato country, and the
lug averages about thirty pounds A fella could get a
(17:34):
pretty good workout handling tomatoes because just like hey, you
had to handle it more than once. Had to pick them,
load them up, box them up, and load them at
the farm, unload them at the tomato shed. After the
soul buyers bit against each other and the highest bitter
bought the whole load of what was represented on the table.
It was hot, it was stressful, and some families were
(17:56):
depending on what the tomato crop brought as they substantial
portion of their yearly income. I remember once when the
market was down or on occasion, it was rumored that
the buyers had conspired together to keep the prices load
to increase their profit. Now I don't know if that
happened or not, but the farmer wasn't being paid enough
(18:18):
to cover the cost of the expense of planting, growing, harvesting,
and what the buyer offered was an absolute insult to
the folks that had labored day after day to bring
the best produce to market. After all, the grocery store
prices hadn't fallen in relation to what the farmer was
being paid, nor had the cost of producing them. And
(18:38):
I saw it explode one day as we waited our
turn to sell, and seeing the ones before us getting
pennies on the dollar for their invested labor. In one
of the purported buyer conspiracy times. My mama was worrying stress,
knowing the bad news that was coming when I was sold.
But this one farmer, he made a statement. He pulled
(18:59):
his truck co working the shed and dump the whole
load in the middle of the fairgrounds. Regardless of how
you feel about it, right or wrong or indifferent, he'd
made a stand. He'd rather throw them away than be
insulted with what they were offering. Several others followed, not
but nothing, there's too but refusing to sell them to
those buyers at that price, and they seld them themselves
(19:23):
as best as they could. That's a prime example of
our inherent freedom to protest and take a stand against
something that you feeled is wrong. And I doubt it
solved anything other than letting off some steam. But don't
be afraid to make a Bowld correction. That was instruction
given to me in ait at Fortsaille, Oklahoma, in nineteen
(19:45):
eighty seven by an instructor in reference to adjusting artillery
fire onto the target. Don't be afraid to make a
Bowld correction. I've never forgotten that, and I've used it
as advice for my life. I've had more than one
bold correction in my life to make, and I'm thankful
I did, and I'm ever.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Vigilant for the next one.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
If you take one thing away from this episode today,
where I went down more rabbit holes than one of
George Pennington's champion beagles, let it be that one. Make
a bold correction when necessary, stand up for yourself, fix
yourself when you need to fix it, don't be scared
to do it. I'm so glad you allowed me the
(20:31):
time to run around between years this week, and I
hope I didn't step on anything important.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I get several messages from folks about supporting the show
and what we're doing, and the best way to do
that is by checking out the sponsors. You hear us
reading ads for it really does make a difference and
has a direct impact thanks to y'all it reached out
about it. Also, y'all scooed on over and subscribe to
the new Media to Podcast Network channel on YouTube. From
(21:00):
the meat Eater channel, you'll be able to hear all
your favorite podcasts and see all the ones that are
being filmed. We just started filming the Bear Grease Render episodes,
which is pretty cool. Now this country life isn't slated
for filming and who wants to watch me stare at
a microphone while struggling to read the stuff I wrote
doing take after take. But we've got some other stuff
(21:23):
we're working on that will be included that I hope
you'll enjoy, and on that channel is where you'll see
it eventually. One more thing, This heat is rough on
folks and pets. Try to make some time to check
on them, any and all of them that might be
affected by these high temperatures. Take them a drink of
water and some tomatoes. Bradley's if you have the means
(21:45):
until next week. This is Brent Reid signing off.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Y'all be careful.
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