Spring brings quick gratification with greens and radishes and pretty flowers. But some things require more patience and room to grow, like corn and tomatoes.  Eventually the towering corn stocks will be pulled up to make way for okra and maybe pumpkins.

But right now  is the peak of perfection, the moment of maturity to be appreciated before it too passes.

Soon we’ll be savoring sliced tomatoes still hot from the field, and ears of corn not yet shucked, smoking on the grill.

But not yet. Since I fried fish and zucchini and green tomatoes yesterday for the father who so faithfully tends the garden, tonight I’ll be sautéing the zucchini, and shredding some for zucchini muffins, and putting some more zucchini away in the freezer, and probably find someone to give some to.

If you’ve ever grown zucchini, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, you should try. There’s always more than you can eat, so you wind up helping to feed the neighborhood…