It’s hard to write and even harder to believe that my Dad, Dan Field, left us five years ago today.   He was only 68 when he collapsed in a room at a vineyard in Italy on vacation with my Mom.    Not a bad way to go, but why that had to happen when it did will never be something I can comprehend.   That first week in October 2006 was a big one for Rick’s Picks… we introduced Smokra to the world, and then my world changed the next day.   Dad has missed a lot, and we miss him more.

Daniel Field, captured in mid-anecdote.

My brother really got it right a couple of years back when he posted this tribute to Dad.   Here are the two of them on Easter Sunday several years ago.

Father and Son, looking like players in an Elmore Leonard movie.

Dad did not cook that much in our family… he usually left it to Mom, my brother and me.    He was known for Chinese beef, boiled eggs, and most especially, pickled green tomatoes, which he lovingly crafted each fall with the little green beauties that would emerge on creeping vines along the stone wall at our house in Vermont.   I made a small batch this year myself by way of tribute.    Here they are.

Dan Field's Pickled Green Tomatoes.

I’ve often said that it was the experiences I had as a child making pickles with my family that lead me into the craft and then the profession as an adult.    On a day like this, the normally-sweet memories are vividly bittersweet.   Here’s Dad’s recipe for Pickled Green Tomatoes, straight from an old email he sent me.

Pickled Green Tomatoes

Discarding any that have a tint of pink or orange, wash and pack cherry tomatoes in six pint jars, in each of which you have put:

(1.) 2 bay leaves

(2.) 1 teaspoon pickling spice

(3.) 2 cloves garlic

(4.) 1 dill head

(5.) 1 slice of onion

(6.) 1/8 teaspoon celery seed.

Bring to boil 4 cups water, 2 cups cider vinegar, 1/2 cup of kosher salt and pour boiling into jars.

No need for boiling water bath because the tomatoes are so acid.