Pesky Mother Nature
Has anyone else noticed the heat? I mean, I know it’s late July...in Texas...and triple digits are expected, but man it’s a little warm out there! We thought that with the blueberries finally coming into the fullness of what we love about them and the still very loaded bushes we would be going into August. However, as nature would have it, the heat is winning out. So now we will beg, plead and grovel. Oh please won’t you come pick some blueberries!? The bushes are in it to save themselves, so as the high temps continue we will start to have blueberry raisins unless you come and save them from such a demise.
Our new hours will be in effect through next Friday, July 30th. We will be closed on Saturday July 31st for a private event. If you would like to visit us after July 31st, please call or email as we will be available for picking by reservation only. It doesn’t make any sense for us to keep staff at the place with only a trickle of customers, but we DO WANT TO SEE YOU. As mentioned there are still lots and lots and lots of blueberries to be picked and want to be available to anyone who wants to come out. We’re starting to see a less consistent stream of customers as families are getting ready for back to school season (P.S. We haven’t been in school for a loooooong time, but school supply shopping is happiness. New pens, notebooks, folders. Hopes and plans for a successful and organized year. *sigh*)
We’ve got Class!
Two Saturdays ago, we had some folks out for a canning class. Well, actually, we had a morning and an afternoon class, but several of our “morning” folks stayed over for the afternoon class. We had a lot of fun and we hope you folks did, too. We canned jelly in the AM and jam in the PM. Many thanks to Mom (aka Sue Ann Spencer) for showing us how to get that stuff into the jars. I (Jeannie) have personally already plowed my way through a complete jar of jam without any assistance, thus proving I did not need any instruction on getting it OUT of the jars.
We’re planning some more classes for the fall, which may include a pear butter class, peach orange marmalade, and soap-making. If you have never actually tried homemade soap, then you need to put it on your list of things to try. I don’t believe I have purchased commercial soap since Mom started making hers several years ago. We’ll be adding this to our online store so you can try some.
Online e-Country Store
And speaking of our store. Don’t forget you can pick up some of the wonderful stuff we carry here at the farm by logging on to TxBerry.com/CountryStore and placing your order. We have some new items we’ll be adding, because we think they’re amazing (and we don’t mind tooting our own horn), like mango lime salsa.
And since we’re on the subject, I just have to tell you all it is something different to change from “city” to “country” when it comes to the post office. Just this Saturday I had something I needed to ship for a couple customers. I thought I had my act together and headed to the post office, only to find they closed at 10AM. 10??? Really??? Yes, Jeannie, this is reality in a small town. So to my dear customers who are waiting on their order: I am sorry, it’s going to be a day later than expected.
Trivial Matters
We love to hear from you, our new friends and loyal customers. A couple weeks ago we had a conversation with a family who picked A LOT of berries. One of the younger members of the family asked how many berries they had picked. We had never counted the number of berries in a bucket, so they were kind enough to do the work for us. They followed up with an email of their results.
They picked 3 gallons, so came up with the following:
1 cup = 150 blueberries (approximately)
16 cups to a gallon
16 x 150 = 2400 blueberries
3 gallons x 2400 berries = 7200 blueberries
That’s a lot of blueberries, people! And I know we sold more gallons of blueberries than we ever thought possible!
Thanks to the Howard family for visiting the Berry Patch and for providing this fun information!
Recipe
In order to sample some of our jam/jelly at the Saturday class, I offered up some homemade bread. Now then, we call it “crack bread” around here, because it’s the easiest way to describe it. If you are sensitive to shady references, close your eyes for the rest of this paragraph. I made several loaves of my bread (formerly known as artisan loaves) to take to a business event last year. Everyone raved and raved about the bread. One individual, who was on a diet and cursing me for bringing it said, “this is so addictive, it’s like crack” and that happens to be the name that stuck. At any rate, several of the folks who were at the class made a special request that I include the recipe in an upcoming newsletter, so I am happy to accommodate.
With this recipe, I started making it when I found a compelling article in a favorite magazine. This is one of the easiest bread recipes I have ever encountered, and it doesn’t involve a bread machine. As with many things, I tried doing it “their way” and for different reasons, had to adjust the method to suit my purposes. (Often, this has disastrous results, but in this case it worked.) In order to keep this newsletter at a reasonable length, I am going to include the link to the original article, as it has some excellent tips. You’ll find the actual ingredients on page 3. I have set my mind to actually buy the book, but until then, we’ll just satisfy our bread-addict selves with crack-bread below.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx
Crack Bread Variations
i.e. what I did to make it mine
- Always, always, always use Kosher salt
- Use a pre-heated cast iron skillet instead of a baking stone (mine broke during a crack-bread baking session)
- Before baking, sprinkle with rosemary and Kosher salt
- Use olive oil and fresh-ground pepper for dipping
- Eat it warm
Stay cool and healthy!
The Berry Patch Crew
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