Buttermilk Creek Farm in
We first went there two years ago when we were house
hunting. We couldn’t be too ambitious in
our picking then because we were heading back to New York
and a load of peaches was just not in the cards.
Buttermilk Creek Farm is beautiful: row upon row of peaches
ripening throughout the season.
Butterflies, bees, green leaves, and yellow and red ripe peaches, or
ripening peaches.
Row upon row of peach trees making the air fragrant and the walk beautiful |
Row upon row of green-leafed blueberry bushes with stalks bent over, heavy with fruit and beckoning your fingers which, somehow, can’t resist popping one (or two or more) into your mouth, marveling at the warm, tart taste that you never find in a grocery store.
Row upon row of blackberry bushes with fruit in all stages
of ripening, so your eyes are treated to an array of colors long before you
find the plump blackberry,
Picking fresh fruit right off the bush, vine, or tree, is a
remarkable treat simply because most of us don’t have that opportunity
often. If you’ve never done it, you
don’t realize that a ripe, sun-warmed peach or blackberry or blueberry does not
taste like the fruits we buy in the stores that have been picked long before
they are ripe and then ripen as they are shipped and then stocked on our
shelves. Eat a tree-ripened peach right
in the grove where the air smells of peach, and feel the juice drip down your
chin. Pretty incredible.
While we visited Buttermilk Creek Farm on the first day it opened this year, there was sadness as well. This past winter, as you probably remember, there was frost and storms. Buttermilk Creek Farm lost almost 90% of its crop. Trees were damaged as well. They opened anyway so the fruits that were undamaged would be picked and eaten. That’s a fact of life on the farm. Good years and bad years with the hope that the good years outnumber the bad.
The owner, who we met on our first visit, looked at the fruit
we picked which is sold by the pound. As
he put our fruit on his scale, he picked out a few peaches that didn’t look
quite perfect to him. “We don’t sell
damaged goods here,” he said. After
weighing the fruit and quoting the price, he put the peaches back in our
box. “They’ll be fine,” he said. But he did not charge us for them. Principles.
He also told us an interesting story—from his
perspective. He can tell Northern
transplants from Southerners by the berries they pick. Northerners like blueberries, and he makes
sure he has them. But Southerners like
blackberries and have plenty of recipes for them. Can’t say this is gospel but can say this is
one man’s feelings. At any rate, this
year we went for blackberries.
It was a wonderful experience. If you are in the state while peaches are in
season, visit one of the many farms. You
don’t have to get a lot, but enjoy the rich experience of picking from a tree
and eating the warm, sun-ripened, globe of sweet delight. And if you want to experiment, there's always peach jam to make. It's yummy!!
Our first attempt at canning peach jam. Edible immediately. But some to save. Absolutely yummy. We're thinking of making more! |
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