{"id":1089,"date":"2012-06-06T09:08:32","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T14:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2012-06-08T14:31:05","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T19:31:05","slug":"florida-discoveries-24-blueberries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/06\/florida-discoveries-24-blueberries.html","title":{"rendered":"Florida Discoveries 24: Touchablue Berry Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

So many blueberries, but only one me to eat them all!<\/p><\/div>\n

I made plans with a neighborhood friend, Sandra, to go blueberry picking. I had friended A&N Blueberry Farm on Facebook<\/a> earlier this spring and watched their page for when they’d be opening. Last Thursday (while our older sons were in school) we drove all the way up to the town of Molino, Florida (about an hour away) and when we got to A&N, the farm was closed. \u00a0I mean, really CLOSED!<\/p>\n

A sign was taped to the locked gate:<\/p>\n

Due to unforeseen circumstances we will be closing the blueberry patch until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes. Please monitor our website for any further information. \u00a0Please don’t judge our decision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks to my handy-dandy smartphone, we learned that there were several other blueberry farms in the area<\/a>, the closest one being only about 3 miles away. \u00a0So we drove west just a few minutes and found Touchablue Berry Farm.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This lovely little farm is at the far western end of Molino Road in Molino, Florida.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This farm is very well-groomed and has a European-styled "u-pick, u-weigh, u-pay" system. Much of our time there, the stand was unattended.<\/p><\/div>\n

You help yourself to one of these buckets that has a cushioned strap that you can hang around your neck.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Take a bucket from the bottom shelf. They're lined with bags that you'll take with you when you're done. Return the unlined buckets to the top shelf.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This young lady is modeling how you can wear the buckets so both hands are free for picking!<\/p><\/div>\n

Once you have your bucket, you simply head out to the fields. Unlike strawberries, where everything is down at ankle level, picking blueberries is easy for folks of all heights. The kids will stick to the lower parts of the branches, and we grown-ups can work at the higher areas. So much easier than strawberries.<\/p>\n

Sandra, her daughter and I had a nice morning picking berries. It took us about an hour to fill our buckets. We learned that there were several varieties of blueberries growing together. You could see the different characteristics of berries, such as bunched or individual. We’d taste the berries and there were distinctive flavor differences also. There was this one variety in particular that I ended up focusing on, it seemed to have that classic blueberry flavor that artificial flavors try to replicate when they’re making Pop Tarts and blueberry pancake syrup. But this was the real deal and the flavor was HEAVENLY!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

We were at the early end of the season, locals told us that the berries will be much bigger by mid-June.<\/p><\/div>\n

When we finished filling our buckets, it was time to weigh and pay.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The weigh-and-pay station. So easy!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

I ended up with about 5 pounds of berries, which came to $3.75 (only $0.75 per pound, wow!). I put a $5 bill in the box to compensate for the 1+ pound of berries I probably consumed while out in the fields.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sandra and I want to take our sons with us next week for MORE berries! I’ve frozen about half of my berries from last week, and I made a blueberry cobbler<\/a> and blueberry pancakes with the fresh ones I left out this week. What will I do with even MORE berries? That’s easy: I’ll take some of them up north next week on our road trip to give to family, and I would like to try to make blueberry syrup with this recipe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Touchablue Berry Farm<\/a> is open during daylight hours every day in June and July for self-service blueberry picking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I made plans with a neighborhood friend, Sandra, to go blueberry picking. I had friended A&N Blueberry Farm on Facebook earlier this spring and watched their page for when they’d be opening. Last Thursday (while our older sons were in school) we drove all the way up to the town of Molino, Florida (about an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[261,260,97,626,263,262],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-hz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1227,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/07\/major-moms-back-to-basics-campaign-homemade-blueberry-syrup.html","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":0},"title":"Major Mom’s “Back to Basics” Campaign: Homemade Blueberry Syrup","date":"21 July 12","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I made blueberry syrup. \u00a0This was a request from Jacob, who loves the taste of blueberries but doesn't care for the texture of the skins or the seeds. The recipe I used was mainly from the Ball Blue Book canning guide and I chose it because it called for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"back to basics\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/IMG_2822-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":541,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/04\/florida-discoveries-9-akers-of-strawberries.html","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":1},"title":"Florida Discoveries 9: Akers of Strawberries!","date":"07 April 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Love that name! \u00a0It's the name of our nearby you-pick strawberry farm.This post will be about our strawberry picking experience, which wasn't quite as nice as\u00a0The Vollmer Farm in North Carolina, but it has the\u00a0Bellevue Berry Farm in Nebraska\u00a0beat, hands down!My next post will cover the strawberry jam I made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"akers of strawberries\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/_yz59FVsseJY\/TZzLgDa-uMI\/AAAAAAABUHo\/3caDuzsDjBQ\/s400\/IMG_7319.JPG?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1277,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/08\/florida-discoveries-31-steves-farm-in-walnut-hill.html","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":2},"title":"Florida Discoveries 31: Steve’s Farm in Walnut Hill","date":"06 August 12","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Saturday the family headed to the northwest corner of Florida for some catfish fishing. \u00a0I know that sounds strange, hauling so far up north when we have amazing fishing all around us, right? We're first heard about Steve's Farm through our Cub Scout pack, they had an outing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fishing\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/CatfishFeeder.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":637,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/08\/florida-discoveries-16-follow-that-bird-help-me-identify-a-bird.html","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":3},"title":"Florida Discoveries 16: Follow That Bird! Help Me Identify a Bird….","date":"25 August 11","format":false,"excerpt":"That beautiful garden from last March-May? \u00a0All but dead. \u00a0The insane heat, plus the lack of rain earlier this summer made it tough to maintain after our vacation. \u00a0Between the tomato hornworms, blossom end rot and other crap, I just said \"forget it\". \u00a0It was too hot to even stand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bird watching\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-_Vcd9KLVJfw\/Th44L0gi1JI\/AAAAAAABX_M\/eMXq7yH-wl4\/s640\/IMG_9066.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1107,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/06\/summer-fun.html","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":4},"title":"Summer Fun!!","date":"11 June 12","format":false,"excerpt":"The kids are definitely enjoying their summer vacation so far! \u00a0Apparently Jacob was working extra-hard this school year because I hadn't seen him this happy in a long time. \u00a0School and baseball just wore him out, I guess. \u00a0They're enjoying sleeping late, staying up late at night and not having\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"friends\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Cobbler.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/05\/florida-discoveries-10-dr-beals-shell-museum.html","url_meta":{"origin":1089,"position":5},"title":"Florida Discoveries 10: Dr. Beal’s Shell Museum","date":"04 May 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I call it \"Pulling a Maryann\". \u00a0I see something while driving down the road, so I pull over and take some pictures.When it's in my neighborhood, that's one thing. \u00a0I don't have many problems doing that when I see some pretty flowers. \u00a0But today I screeched onto the shoulder off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"florida\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-PHj9nszYiRo\/TcCnGEGJYtI\/AAAAAAABVV8\/OtVcbr6JFQY\/s400\/IMG_4656.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}