Went up to Townsend yesterday to pick blueberries.  It’s funny because I always thought that blueberries were over by this time in the season… but apparently not!  This little blueberry ‘farm’ is located just up from the Darien outlet mall at Exit 49 as you head west then north along Rte 251. This blueberry ‘farm’ – more of a large patch really – had the largest blueberry bushes I’d ever seen with some really great looking fruit. The place was clean, well kept and the lady who owns it, Peggy, was as nice as she could be! She and her husband have owned the place for about 25 years and the blueberries were already there!

Overkill?

There were so many berries on these bushes, I could have stood at one bush and picked my fill… You could just reach in and grab clusters of large berries hanging almost like bunches of grapes.  I ended up picking two gallons while my husband picked two gallons for my mother-in-law.

Just like I picked two large baskets of peaches the other day near Reidsville – I think the two gallons of blueberries might have been far more than I needed.  Out there, it seems like a reasonable amount of fruit to pick… however, inside your kitchen, you realize you went a little overboard.

I’ve spent the last couple of days making jam… lots and lots of jam.  Anyone who makes jam knows it’s not something you can simply whip up.  There are processes involved with sterilization and all that.  A pot of boiling water going along with the pot of boiling fruit… and it’s not like you can leave the fruit alone and take a long break. Add to all this my peach allergy… yup, I’m allergic to the flesh.  I can pick them with no problem, but once I get in contact with the juice, I break out into hives.  So I have to use latex gloves when peeling and chopping, which makes the process even more difficult.  I still broke out into itchy hives, with the gloves on and spent the last two days  medicated on benedryl.

So I made three batches of peach & ginger jam ( I throw in chopped candied ginger which goes nicely with the peach)… and as you can see, have plenty of peaches left over.  This is after we gave some away and there’s still more in the fridge!

And I made two batches of the blueberry jam… which between the jam, the cobbler I made for dessert last night and a quart ziptop bag frozen – still leaves me with an entire gallon.

The peaches I picked were white peaches, which makes for a beautiful jam – pale and jewel like.  The funny thing is that I also canned a batch of peach salsa.  My husband pointed out last night that while the white peach made beautiful jam, in salsa form, the pale fruit did little to make the salsa look appetizing.  In fact, it sort of looks like vomit – his words, not mine, although I can see what he means.

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Boy this was a long post…

One of the advantages of living on the Georgia coast is our proximity to Tattnall county – Georgia’s self-proclaimed u-pick capital.  Home to the trademarked and well-known Vidalia Onions, Tattnall County is more than sweet onions!

Had the chance to stop in today at Oliver Farm near Reidsville and picked white peaches fresh off the trees.  They had two long rows ripe for picking of the white variety with the darker orange fleshed peaches to be ready between the 20th and 25th of July they said. Managed to fill two large baskets and paid only 50 cents a pound for them! (a far cry from 99 cents/lb on sale in the stores! – and a whole lot fresher!)

So now that they’re home… my kitchen is overflowing with peaches.  They’re covering all my counterspace…

Saturday, I’m planning on picking some blueberries. Ordinarily, I think blueberries are done by July – but our winter lasted so long this year, everything seems to be pushed out til later in the season. There’s a great u-pick blueberry farm in Townsend, just across the county in McIntosh and the lady there said there would be plenty of berries for another week!  So I suppose Sunday, I’ll be making peach & ginger jam, peach salsa and blueberry jam – not to mention a blueberry peach cobbler at some point.

Too bad I have to wear latex gloves to handle the peaches… while I can handle their skin, I can’t handle their flesh and juices raw… I break out in strange hives.  Dunno… developed this odd allergy to peaches in college- nothing deadly like some allergies, just a mildly irritating one.  Still, love peaches enough that I’ll gladly take a Benedryl in order to go a little crazy with peaches each summer!

A little tired of apples.  Note to self:  never buy a bushel of apples no matter how fun it is to pick them off the trees.

Took our bikes out on the Hampton Spur this past weekend.  The Hampton Spur is a bike path project that runs from the circle at Frederica and Lawrence Roads to Hampton Point on the north end of the Island – something like 6.5 miles.  It’s really quite nice… with benches along the way for little pitstops, markers to show you how far you’ve gone and what elevation you are at.  The St Simons Land Trust is currently trying to raise money for the final leg of the project, the first half being donated by some Sea Island resident as a gift.

The Hampton Spur runs along the Sea Island Stables (moved from the old location at the corner of Frederica & Sea Island Rd) and passes Frederica, Sea Island’s most recent development on the north end.  Both are apparently in foreclosure and due to be sold soon to a buyer waiting in the wings… so it will be interesting to see what happens there.  The path also will take you to the new Frederica Park.  20 acres of land was donated by the Sea Island Company, planned in conjunction with the Land Trust and scheduled to open soon.  It’s going to feature playing fields and nature trails along with parking and facilities… so you won’t have to pee behind the bushes, I guess.

Back to our bike ride… we ended up driving up to Oglethorpe Elementary and taking our bikes out from there… rode up about 3 miles before turning around and heading back.  I’ve been told there was a guy riding his bike on the path and saw someone he knew driving down Lawrence Rd… so he waved.  Apparently his timing was bad – he waved just as the path approached a street crossing where poles that been place to prevent larger vehicles from driving onto the path. He hit the pole and crashed and was seriously injured.  So even something as simple as our little back path, with no hills, no curves… and nothing that would merit it as being dangerous, can be a hazard if you feel compelled to wave at everyone you know… there’s something to be said about not being neighborly…

Anyway, I plan on taking advantage of the Hampton Spur… and looking forward to the new park!

Walked out of a restaurant (I use the term loosely) this evening, all because of the cheese.  We went over to town for dinner craving Philly Cheesesteaks and had been told by several people that Skinny Pete’s was the place to go.

Well, we walked in… and the place was empty.  We walked up to the counter and looked at the menu and began to order… then I asked that crucial question:  ”What choice of cheese do we get?”   The answer was a disappointing: “American”  Ugh.  Then she added, “It’s white American.”  As if that makes any difference.

So we left and went next door to Five Guys and got burgers instead… all because of the cheese.  I know there is always much debate on what really  should go on a cheesesteak.  But for me: Provolone!… no American cheese, I don’t care what color it is.

I’m still perplexed by this traffic circle under construction at the entrance to St. Simons Island.  While I’ve already voiced my complaint but after driving through this circle some more over the past several weeks, I have this to say…

Now, consider that a good chunk of the residential population of St. Simons Island live Mid-North to North on the Island as it is not as developed commercially as the South end… and consider also, that since the South end of the Island is indeed more commercially developed than the northern parts of the Island, there is less residential traffic but more business related traffic and therefore, commuters from the Mainland on the south end of the Island.

So now imagine the evening rush hour… as people who work on the Mainland come home across the 4 mile stretch of the Torras Causeway… they approach the end and must now veer right onto the circle and then eventually veer left.  At that point, the circle (which is down to one lane right now due to on-going construction) meets up with the very critical road by which anyone leaving work in the Village area (the business/tourist heavy part of the Island) will invariably approach.  Right now, it is just a back up… it took us 20 minutes just to get our way through this last Friday around 3:50pm from just past the Golden Isles Marina. Folks leaving the Island must yield to traffic coming on the Island… it backs up both in-bound and out-bound… all because of the light at Demere Rd.

So, once this other lane opens, imagine this:  Out-bound traffic comes westbound and veers right onto the circle. In-bound traffic comes eastbound and veers left into the circle.  Now, they are both northbound, out-bound on the right lane, in-bound on the left. But… now, each side of traffic must effectively switch places… Out-bound traffic must move to the left lane to catch the left turn light and get off the Island… and In-bound traffic must get on the right lane to either go north through the light or make a right onto Demere.   Am I making any sense here? Boy,  I think I need a dandelion break… sigh.

Hence, I’m still really confused by the whole thing.

Spent this morning at the movies… probably the earliest movie I’ve ever seen, but it was free and so was the popcorn – for breakfast, no less! Our local orthodontist, Dr. Weaver, apparently does a Patient Appreciation day each year, so this was their 3rd Annual event. He rents out the entire theater in Brunswick for a 10am showing – which this year was Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Can’t say I’m a huge Ben Stiller fan… but all in all, if you absolutely suspend reality and quit asking those nagging questions like: if a plane exhibit flies out of the Air & Space Museum and crashes into the Smithsonian Castle, wouldn’t some sort of alarm be triggered… the movie is pretty entertaining. There was a huge turn-out… apparently, there are a lot of folks around here under orthodontic care.