Enjoy some hot slaw news, Dune-tomato-monster tips and original Food as a Verb poetry.

Pruning our Wednesday offering, hoping to settle into a reliable mid-week post that delivers you things you need and want.

By now, you realize our set list each week follows a two-part process: informal, informative post on Wednesdays with our heavy-hitter feature on Sunday.

So, each Wednesday, we want to offer things you want and need.

Like news.

• Did you know Tennessee recently named hot slaw to be an official state food?

Not the official state food.

But an official state food.

Never had hot slaw, but it originates just down the road in Cleveland, Tennessee. Seems like there are many candidates for an official state food: hot chicken, MoonPies, barbecue out of Memphis. I'd even vote for poke salad.

But hot slaw?

"It’s typically a mixture of finely chopped cabbage, jalapeño or some other spicy pepper, onions, mustard, maybe some mayonnaise and salt. It should crunch, without the sweetness or softness of coleslaw or chow chow," the New York Times reported.

Each Wednesday, we can provide some helpful growing tips.

For you cool-weather growers, late July is a good time to start fall and winter transplants, so says the UT Extension's helpful fruit and vegetable growing guide + calendar. (Online version is here.)

So, time to buy kale, lettuce and cabbage seeds.

Their calendar is eerily accurate; on July 9, it asked: have you seen any of those pesky tomato/tobacco hornworms?

Oh, have we. "Pesky" is not the word I used, either.

Brilliantly camouflaged on our tomato plants, they've eaten more of the plant than we have.

We peeled off 10 in one day.

They look like a small green version of the sand monster in Dune. So big, even the chickens were scared to eat them.

We can provide also recipes, market news, announcements and, at the end of every post, our farmers' market list.

Give us some feedback: what would you find helpful and readable in our Wednesday post?

Now, the best for last:

A poem from Sarah and our weekly installment of Food in our Phone.

Never Just a Tomato

A moment for things that happen in the yard.

It’s not just a tomato
when you spy
that speck of red
through the mess of vines
you thought would stay green all Summer

It’s not just a tomato
when the Spring fortune you spend
with highest hopes
of becoming the next great backyard farmer
offers a renewed purpose

It’s not just a tomato
while you clip away the gnarly
support the weak stems
when you water every day
and when you often forget

It’s not just a tomato
when there isn’t much you wouldn’t do
for that earthy smell at your finger tips

It’s not just a tomato
when sometimes it feels like
everything should be fixed
with some water and sunshine
but then you’re reminded
there are barely a handful of things
we can control

It’s not just a tomato
when mowing the grass takes a turn
is that sweat or tears?
either one, I’ll take it

It’s never just a tomato.

Food in our Phone

weekly nibbles and encounters

‍This week's food in my phone ... showing me that life really is all about balance.

All photography by Sarah Unger (sarah@foodasaverb.com)

All design by Alex DeHart

All words by David Cook (david@foodasaverb.com)

Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in sponsorship or advertising opportunities? Email us: david@foodasaverb.com and sarah@foodasaverb.com

This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.