When August arrives, summer wears her tiara
Like a prom queen. Every day is golden with warm
Sunshine and every twilight filled with fireflies.
August is the month of glorious excess, the moment
For daring memories. Oversized sunflowers surround
The corn fields, filled with heavy yellow ears, waiting
To be shucked. The long wooden table at the church potluck
Creaks with piles of potato salad, fried chicken, baked beans
With bacon and huge juicy blackberry cobblers, still bubbling
From the oven along with the usual home-baked brownies and
A massive supply of chips and dips.
Even Grandpa chugs three Coca-Colas, cold with sweat
From the ice chest. And after several dozen paper plates have each
Been filled two or three times and tossed in the trash bin,
The dads, still snacking on chips and beer, gather under a tall
Catalpa and talk about fishing and baseball.
The moms stay at the picnic table, nibble on brownies
And share recipes for Jell-O salads and quilting tips.
When the huge scarlet sun slips down over the corn fields,
The teenagers hop into their pickups, go out dancing,
And fall in love. As the decades roll by, nobody regrets a moment
Of that hot August night, and none of them ever get tired of fireflies
Or potato salad.
I have always loved August, partly because my birthday is in August, and I never had to share my special celebration with any national or cultural holidays, unlike the poor kids who were born on Christmas Eve. Every year, August is just thirty-one long and languid days of summer bliss. August isn’t even a transitional month, when one season shifts into another. August is pure summer, with no school and no responsibilities of any kind. At least, that’s how it was for me when I was a child. Then I married a man whose birthday is also in August, and we got to share a double celebration every year.
A soft mist floats in
On the warm wind, lifting white
Butterflies skyward.
You are welcome to re-read my July and August blogs from 2024 when my husband Wayne and I were celebrating our Big Birthdays by vacationing in Okinawa and Tokyo. Last year’s August blog contains the recipe for a wonderfully refreshing Japanese style summer dessert: Ginger Gelatin with Grapefruit,
In the summer breeze,
Near the temple’s tall columns,
Green maple leaves lift.
This year, I am still feeling nostalgic for all those August potlucks from my childhood, and I have already made the Potato Salad from my poem “When August Arrives,” several times. This Potato Salad has been part of my life as long as I can remember, and though I have grown up to be an experienced home cook, this favorite summer salad is one of the few items I make regularly without using a recipe. I just get into the kitchen and throw all the ingredients together with a happy heart, as my grandmother always did.
Summer’s gardenias
Fade among the glossy leaves,
Yet their scent lingers.
After my nuclear family left the Missouri and Kansas borderline where we were all born, we made a yearly road trip from our home on the west coast back to our grandparents’ house every summer, where I spent August eating Gram’s potato salad and baked beans and watching carefully as she created these farmland classics. Along the way, as our old station wagon rolled down Highway 66, Dad always stopped at roadside diners for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My brother, sister and I were allowed to order whatever we wanted from the menu. There was plenty of good pie along the way, and chocolate milk shakes made by the waitresses, but even as a child, I was shocked and horrified at how nasty the potato salad tasted at these little family-owned coffee shops. I still don’t understand, and even in more sophisticated restaurants I have visited over the years, I have never eaten potato salad that was a good as Gram’s.
The horses graze at
Dusk. Under the huge mango,
The old black bull rests.
Potato Salad is popular throughout the world with many variations influenced by the availability of local ingredients and cultural preferences. The famous German Potato Salad contains crispy fried bacon pieces and even bacon grease and is served warm. The lighter Mediterranean version often includes fresh summer herbs and vegetables such as tomatoes, peas and parsley, moistened with olive oil. Potato Salad is even popular in Japan, with very few added ingredients other than the boiled potatoes in a light dressing with a little vinegar. Here in Hawaii, to my surprise, cooked macaroni is added to the Potato Salad, which is referred to locally as Potato Mac Salad, often with shredded carrots included. Mainland American Potato Salad is almost always made from boiled potatoes, boiled eggs and chopped raw onions mixed with mayonnaise. Depending on the region and the cook’s preferences, olives, pickles, chopped pimentos, corn kernels or any number of other tasty ingredients can be added at the cook’s discretion.
Three quinces in a
Crystal bowl scent the whole house
In the soft twilight.
A lizard puffs out
His orange throat in the hot
August afternoon.
ARKANSAS POTATO SALAD
Although this is just plain old home-made Potato Salad, I am giving it the lofty name of Arkansas Potato Salad to honor my maternal grandmother, Francis Roberts Simon, who was born on a farm in Rogers Arkansas in 1895. She began cooking for the harvesters when she was twelve years old and remained a superb home cook all her life. Nothing she made was ever fancy, but she used fresh local ingredients, prepared them properly and let them speak for themselves. I never saw her use a recipe. The procedure (I won’t call it a recipe,) for making Potato Salad I am sharing here is based on the divine summer potato salad I enjoyed at Gram’s house throughout my childhood. Measurements are not really necessary, as it is difficult to ruin a Potato Salad if you include a harmonious set of ingredients. (This makes the mystery of bad Potato Salad in American diners even more inscrutable.) I have changed my grandmother’s salad only by adding chopped black olives to please my husband who thinks Potato Salad should contain olives instead of chopped pimentos. Feel free to please your own family, or yourself by adjusting the ingredients to your own preferences. Potato Salad is fabulous served with any kind of summer picnic or potluck food, including Deviled Eggs, Baked Beans, Barbeque Meat, Cole Slaw and of course, Blackberry Cobbler.
To Make a Large Bowl of Potato Salad for a Family Dinner or Potluck:
- 6-8 medium sized russet potatoes
- 6-8 boiled eggs, peeled
- Salt and pepper
- Half a small white onion (or less,) finely chopped
- 6-8 sweet gherkins, sliced and chopped into small pieces
- Sweet pickle juice
- 20-30 pitted black olives, crushed in your hands
- Yellow mustard
- Mayonnaise
- For Decoration: 1 boiled egg, sliced, 1 sweet pickle, quartered lengthwise, 4 whole pitted olives, smoked Spanish paprika
Special equipment: Large stock pot, large mixing bowl, disposable kitchen gloves, paring knife, cutting board, large spoon or spatula for stirring, large decorative serving bowl.
Makes: 8-12 large servings
- To make the process easier for yourself, boil and refrigerate the eggs the day before you plan to make the Potato Salad. Scrub the potatoes lightly, leave them unpeeled and place them whole in a large stockpot. Cover with cold tap water and bring to a boil at medium high heat. Cook for about 20-30 minutes until a paring knife inserted in the largest potato goes in and out easily. Remove the pot from the stove, carefully drain off the water in the sink and leave the pot of potatoes in the sink to cool slightly.
- As the potatoes cool, reserve one of the pickles for decoration, chop the onion and remaining pickles on a cutting board and place them in a large mixing bowl. Save one of the boiled eggs for decoration if you wish, peel the boiled eggs, chop them and add them to the pickles and onions in the mixing bowl. Wearing disposable kitchen gloves, reserve 4 of the whole olives and crush the rest in your fingers, adding them to the other ingredients in the mixing bowl.
- When the potatoes are just barely cool enough to handle, still wearing disposable gloves, use the paring knife to remove the peels, which should pull easily off the cooked potatoes. Chop the warm potatoes on the cutting board into medium sized pieces and add them on top of the ingredients in the mixing bowl. Quickly pour pickle juice over the warm chopped potatoes to moisten. (This is the secret to great Potato Salad!) Sprinkle salt and pepper generously over the warm potatoes and thoroughly mix all the ingredients in the bowl until well distributed.
- Add 2 or more teaspoons of yellow mustard and at least half a cup or more of mayonnaise to the mixed ingredients and gently stir with a rubber spatula until no yellow mustard is visible. Sprinkle again generously with salt and pepper. If the mixture appears a bit dry, add more mayonnaise and stir again. Give yourself a large tablespoon of the salad and taste to see if the flavors seem well proportioned. Do not hesitate to add a bit more mustard, mayonnaise or pickle juice if the salad needs a little more zip.
- Potato Salad is so festive that it is fun to decorate it before serving. Place the salad in the large, decorative serving bowl, distributed evenly. Decorate the top with slices of boiled egg, pickle spears and whole olives in a flower-like design or use your imagination. Sprinkle the decorated area lightly with bright orange smoked Spanish paprika.
Refrigerate the leftovers. Potato Salad will stay fresh for several days in the fridge.
