The orchards were calling my name this morning, and their voice was so melodious, I ignored everything else and answered the call. I’ve only got my darling Heather here for three days, and I justified spending three hours picking the bounty of God’s green earth to be an acceptable compromise.
It was a lovely, saturated, satisfying, sustaining, delicious and wholesome day. After a late breakfast of leftover french toast, cheesy eggs, cinnamon apples and orange juice, Heather and I packed the boys in the car and headed out to the farms.
I was hoping for apples and pumpkins, but with the late spring and mild summer we’ve had, many things are weeks behind schedule. We found a farm we liked, put on the sun hat, grabbed a hand-cart and headed out towards the trees. No apples yet at this farm. Turns out we were just in time for the tail-end of the peaches. Lovely, succulent, sun-warmed, juicy and fuzzy peaches. Beanie ate two of them right there in the orchard, dripping sticky juice all over himself and not even caring. If this keeps up, I’m not going to recognize my boy soon. Boy clothes AND new foods. Mamas head is spinning.
We also found some green tomatoes screaming to be fried up with cornmeal in Sipsey’s old cast iron skillet. I had to get them.
The cucumber patch was next, and though the plants were covered in tiny gherkins and tons of blossoms, 
there were only enough ripe ones to put up one small batch of Bread and Butter pickles. Mmmmm. I’m sending them home with Heather for Crazy Chicken Annie- she loves them, and the recipe is from my great-great grandmother in Iowa. I don’t really like B&B pickles, but I make them every summer, just since the tradition of doing it feels like a warm, crisp apron from the line in the backyard.
Some peppers, onions and garlic made it’s way into our wagon, as well as some spectacularly fuchsia dirt-laden beets. Jeffrey won’t eat them, but he sure did have fun digging them up with me. I vow this year to find a recipe for beets I like- each year I’m enchanted with how lovely they are, then I cook them and remember they taste like dirt.
We tip-toed past the beehives, buzzing with activity in the warm afternoon, and discussed whether bees are in fact, busy. The consensus was Yes, and wasps are just mean. The bees were on our way to the enormous rows of blackberry brambles…
At first, I was thinking we would just get a few, maybe enough to make a pie or some jam- but they were so fantastically fat and squishy and juicy and heavenly, we quickly filled a basket with more than ten pounds of berries. And we never even made it all the way down ONE row. That’s how many berries there were… Beanie ate as many as he put in the baskets, the purple juice mingling with the peach on his chin and shirt. He and Jeff also made friends with other berry-seekers among the brambles. My children are not shy.
Our baskets were overflowing, and the cart was getting heavy. Jeff and Bean labored under the hot sun to pull the wagon back to the cider house. Gimpy Heather and Lazy Mama sipped mint juleps in the shade… no? Oh, I keep wandering off. Ok, so we paid for our bounty, nabbed some local honey from those lazy, no good bees, and hopped back in the car to look for pumpkins and apples.
No pumpkins, and we had to search out the apples, finally finding an organic farm with some fantastic honey crisp lovelies Heather is smuggling under her shirt back to California tomorrow. No one will notice, I’m sure.
I picked up another honey made by those lazy bees, and some apples too. We had just about had our fill of nature and honey and outdoor-ness, so we headed home.
Tonight, after I made the pickles, Heather watched a movie with the Monkeys while I made the best double-crust peach pie you will ever, ever not see, and a blackberry tart with french pastry cream filling, drizzled with red currant glaze. All. From. Scratch. Yes. I rock.
I still have nine and a half pounds of blackberries I need to make into jam- but I was out of jars and lids. I told you I’m lazy. Martha Stewart would have blown the canning jars herself from the silica she keeps in a pretty, labelled basket for just such an emergency. But me? Nope. I folded. I blinked. I chickened out, and there the blackberries sit, taunting me in my mediocrity.
Getting the boys in bed was a teary affair. They’ve decided Auntie Heather hangs the moon, and they were both teary messes with the thought of her leaving in the morning. It was good to be distracted, then I could just pretend the wetness on my cheeks was transfer from the bawling boys. It’s been a good weekend…
Dandelion Mama 
Glad you had such a great time. There is just something about being outdoors, harvesting delicious fruits that makes us feel blessed (of course, having our favorite people with us definitely helps).
Don’t say that about beets! I think they are like candy. Wash them, boil them in water and minced garlic and then peel them, chop them and toss them with some balsamic vinegar or balsamic glaze. Pure candy.
Thanks to your post the other day I had to go to the grocery store to buy apples just so I could make me an apple pie.
And I just have to ask, since I have no idea where any are in the area – where are these orchard places you’re going to???
Wasps are just mean, baby and I were both stung last week.
All in one day? My head spins just thinking about it all, wonderfully glorious day -those peaches and berries must have had some mighty anti-oxidants too keep you going so long.
I’m feeling somewhat slighted that none of these recipes were posted. Can I assume we’ll see them later? Especially would love the pickles and fried green tomatoes recipes, oh cinnamon apples too.
Last week I made a rustic peach pie and posted the recipe if you want to try, I think it’s easier than traditional pie. Same technique would work for those lovely berries if you added some tapioca for thickening the juice during cooking.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful days.
reading this made my mouth water… it all sounds so yummy and wholesome! And that sounds like an awesome orchard! You should mash up some of those berry and use them as the filling in those jam/shortbread almond drizzley cookies things! That would be great!
Oh my goodness. I need to find some fresh produce to eat ASAP. Please share the pie recipe, it and the tart (and everything else) sound delicious. Darn you and your verdant state for filling me with fruit cravings that aren’t likely to be satisfied by what’s available in this desert with no autumn.
It sounds like a lovely weekend.
Oh that sounds lovely, heavenly… even down to the berries left calling your name.
Wow. Recipe for a perfect day.
That sounds like such a lovely day. I think Heather should live by you. I envy all the beautiful produce you found. There’s just something about picking your own that’s magical.
Um. did you just say “I rock” and then say the blackberries were taunting you in your “mediocrity?” Because seriously, picking everything, making pickles, and baking pies and then NOT making jam? SLACKER CITY.
I love blackberries with all my heart. I have a good cobbler recipe if you want it, although I’m sure you have several that are fancier.
Beets totally taste like dirt. I’m with you there, sister.
And I can’t buh-LEEVE you got peaches this late in the year. Our peaches are long gone, and I missed them—again. Our tomatoes are slower, though. I made my first tomato sauce of the season last night. Hello–it’s September, what’s up with that?
Jealous, jealous, jealous, jealous of those blackberries. We don’t get any of those anywhere round here, and the blueberries we get are long long gone. Wow.
You did all that in one day and you were feeling lazy because you didn’t make jam???? I’ve never done any of that in my entire life, let alone in one day. All my neighbors right now are canning peaches and making pears into fruit leather and whipping up strawberry jam…..and me? I picked my Asian pears, kept a few for me, and then put the rest on the porch with a “take me” sign because they would otherwise just rot sitting in my garage waiting for me to get around to doing something with them. Now who’s lazy?
How fabulous! I am so glad you all had such a great time together.
All those ripe berries, and fresh peach pie, outrageously yummy!
I had an absolutely amazing time with you and your family this weekend!! Thank you so much for everything. Really. For everything. Please tell J, Bean, and Noodle not to cry and that I already miss them terribly. I promise to come back soon to see any new Bionicals they have built, to read new books from the library, to inspect new rocks they have discovered that change color, or to hear about their new insights into picking the perfect ‘rare’ blackberry. I love you all. Thank you again. *kisses and hugs*
Glorious Bounty.
What a joy.