“Listen to me and eat what is good....” Isaiah 55:2
January 11, 2016 - When I was growing up in the 40’s, many poor folks in my hometown of Center, Texas depended on wild game for food. There were so many people hunting that deer and squirrels were hard to find. When someone killed a deer, they’d tie it across their car’s hood and parade it around the Center square. The rabbits we brought to mother tasted a lot like chicken after she her pressure cooked and batter-fried them. We also ate a few raccoons and tried possum…. once.
There was always plenty of “greens” in the neighborhood gardens. Our neighbors often shouted to us, “you kids come over and pick a ‘mess of greens’ when you get home from school”. We ate turnip greens, mustard greens …and in the winter…collards. I got hooked on the broth left in the pot ….we called it “Pot Liquor”. Pot liquor with cornbread and a glass of my Grandmother’s freshly churned buttermilk was as good as it got. My brother Joe says the very thought of pot liquor and cornbread still puts him in a coma.
Our neighbors Ottis and Tommie Melton bring us greens every year from their farm on Palo Gaucho Creek near Hemphill, Texas. When Otis walked up with a sack of Mustard greens yesterday, the greens’ fresh aroma reached the porch before he did. After supper Pam saved some pot liquor for my cornbread the next day. (I was a grown man before I learned that “pot liquor” is not spelled “pot licker” that it’s full of vitamins and makes good soups and gravies.)
When Mother asked me to never drink liquor, I promised her I never would. I’m an old feller now and haven’t broken my promise. I’ve never tasted a drop of wine, beer or any other intoxicant.
But I have imbibed many, many bowls of pot liquor during my lifetime and have enjoyed every drop of it. And the future remains bright for all of us pot liquor lovers. Since it tastes good, is cheap to make and won’t get me drunk, not only will it always be my favorite liquor.
It’ll also be my only liquor.
