Summer is really here when I can buy sweet corn at the farmer’s market. And that’s what I did early Sunday morning. I have a favorite farmer whose corn has been consistently delicious for years. The corn is in after a cool, wet spring. Four ears for $1.50. The price is up from last year when it was four for a dollar.

I cook the corn just like my mother did when I was a kid. Get the pot of water to a rolling boil, put in the ears and boil for 5 minutes. Slather each ear with butter and salt and eat while hot. We had a huge vegetable garden when I was little. My mother got the pot of water ready while my father picked and shucked the corn at the compost pile.

There are many ways to eat fresh corn. A few people cut the kernels off the cob making a pile on the plate. That looks no different than frozen corn from the grocery store. It’s a distancing from the experience of eating corn on the cob. Some people put little yellow plastic stabber/grabber things in the ends of the cob. I wonder why they don’t want to touch the cob. I wouldn’t want to use little plastic supports to eat a pear or an apricot or a stalk of celery. Why not hold the corn? What’s wrong with buttery fingers?

Buttering an ear of corn can be challenging. Some people balance a pat of butter on a knife and attempt to press the butter onto the hot kernels. The butter slips onto the plate and the warm knife jabs at the melting butter to put it back on the cob. Other people simplify the buttering. A cube of cold butter sits on a plate and the steaming cob is held and slid up and down the butter. The cube melts in the center but doesn’t slither away.

Once the ear is buttered, the ear is rotated so that salt covers the drippy corn. The sweet corn is ready to be eaten.

I eat corn in a specific pattern. The tip of the corn is held in my left hand, the fat end is in my right. I bite off the kernels going from left to right like the carriage on a typewriter. Reaching the right end of the cob, the ear is turned down and the next four rows are munched, again moving from left to right.

Years ago, folks from Minnesota told me that I was eating my corn incorrectly. They hold the ear and munch around the cob. Once they have devoured one section, they move to the right and eat another portion around the cob. That doesn’t feel right to me. I like the typewriter method.

Home grown or locally grown tomatoes can’t be beat. Each year I plant a few tomato plants in containers. Usually I’m not successful. the pots dry out and those dang tomato worms appear out of nowhere. Picking up a few tomatoes along with the corn and cukes at the farmer’s market works out better for me.

Summertime with fresh tomatoes is the only time of year to make tomato and cheese sandwiches for lunch. I like to use marbled rye bread. I slice a juicy tomato and lay the thick slices on the bread. I sprinkle Penzey’s Greek seasoning on the tomatoes and place two slices of Swiss or Provolone cheese on top. A few minutes under the broiler to melt the cheese…and I’ve got a tasty summer sandwich.

Sweet corn and tomatoes…that’s what summer is about.