Things I love about August

August is a busy time. So many activities seem to get crammed into this month: last-minute vacations, back-to-school shopping, garden work. So far this month I’ve been to a wedding, a family reunion, spent a week on-call for my job, and started reflooring the bar/office in my home. In the next week, we’ll also be making a short trip to the northwest and moving our son back into the dorms for his sophomore year of college. I have hardly had any time for sandwiches at all.

There are some magical things about the month though. For example: Today, August 21st, 2017 was the day of the first solar eclipse to hit my area since I think 1994? We weren’t in the path of the totality (my sister Bridget down in Nashville got to see it though!), and I was stuck in an office during the whole thing anyway. Fermilab west of Chicago posted a pretty neat photo on Twitter though.

#Eclipse2017 from Fermilab! pic.twitter.com/0kNSpiyvqX

— Fermilab (@Fermilab) August 21, 2017

What does any of this have to do with sandwiches though? Well today also happens to be the third anniversary of your favorite website and mine, Sandwich Tribunal!

August also means Tomato Season. Tomato Season means salsa season (our garden also has a variety of chili peppers, though we have to outsource for our lime and cilantro needs), caprese salad season (we also grow our own basil), cucumber and tomato salad season. We make tomato sauces and fried tomatoes or just slice salt and eat them. We put tomatoes in our curries and stir fries. Most of all though, the best thing about August is that August is BLT Season.

Plain old sandwich bread, lightly toasted. Perfect garden-fresh tomatoes. A variety of lettuces provided by my work buddy Dave (I’ll try growing my own next year!) as well as a head of iceberg for the faint-hearted. My home-cured, home-smoked bacon. Some mayonnaise to dress the veggies. Who needs sides? Though the pickles I made from our garden’s cucumbers will do in a pinch, as well as another slice of tomato. A BLT in August is among the most perfect expressions of the sandwich-maker’s art.

Our eldest son will be returning to college in a few days and I won’t get to see him too much anymore, and our other boys will have their extracurricular activities as well, but tonight, we’ll eat these BLTs together and enjoy our family.

Jim Behymer

I like sandwiches.

I like a lot of other things too but sandwiches are pretty great