Life is Just Peachy!

This blog is coming to you a little late, but it’s too sweet not to write about. When I was a little girl my Pa’s favorite snack seemed to be peaches. So, I was looking forward to visiting a few peach orchards and then I got sick. Luckily, the Friday before I got sick I went out to Pratt’s Orchard. It’s located right off the interstate. You can actually see the peach trees driving down I 65!

Farmer Jack Pratt weighing freshly picked peaches.

Peach trees surround their farm. If one wanted I am sure they could get lost in the trees (note to self peach orchards could be the new cornmaze lol!). The peaches were huge and looked perfect. It was hot, but people were coming out by the carloads to pick peaches. After I tasted one I knew why-JUICY. All the rain this summer made these peaches have the sweetest and juiciest taste ever! Good thing no one took my picture because I had it dripping down my chin!

Picture Perfect Peaches!

Seeing that I was going home to West TN, I decided to get a basket full of ripe peaches from the Peach House. The Peach House is where you can buy pre picked peaches. After talking to my mom we decided to make Peach Preserves. Canning is one of those little things I was very fortunate to have grown up around. Making peach preserves is very easy. The hardest part was keeping my dad from eating all peaches! My dad said it was the best peaches he had eaten in a loooong time, basically since the orchard on our farm got bad disease and the trees died.

Try these on a biscuit! Yum!

It’s too late for you to go out and get peaches from TN. Peach season starts June 1st, make sure to write it down on your calendar! To get more info on Pratt's go to PickTnProducts.org .

I am back and blue!

I am back!!! Sorry, for being such a blogging slacker! This past month I have been super duper sick and I am just now catching up on "real" work, so I can blog. Even though I have been a sick little girl, somehow I have been able to still have a few adventures......These next few blogs will be a step back in time and I will update you to the present happenings of my crazy life.

First, lets go back before I was sick to a farm visit and photo shoot I did at Blueberries on the Buffalo farm. Left Nashville bright and early to get to Lawencburg around 7:00am. This way we could get some great pics before people started to get there and before it got blazing hot!

Drew getting the "berry" perfect shot!

When we got there we were greeted by the farmers Dan and Debbie in front of their big red barn. They are a Pick Your Own Blueberry patch, which was beatuiful with the dew still on the bushes in the early morning light.

Blueberries still on the bush

Truthfully, I wasn't a big blueberry fan. I love blueberry muffins, but not eatting blueberries by themself. They always had a tart taste that I just didn't like. Oh, how I became a lover of blueberries after this visit. These farm fresh berries tasted soooo good! I was amazed the difference in the taste of these berries straight from the farm and store bought. If you ever have a chance to eat blueberries straight from the farm-do it! yummm!

Dan holding blackberries

Being a farm girl, I have ate and picked my fair share of blackberries. They are everywhere on my farm, so when Farmer Dan asked if I wanted to taste their blackberries-I was like sure. Never did I realize that these blackberries came from a THORNLESS bush and was huge. They were nothing like my little fence row blackberries! Of course they tasted yummy as well.

The BIGGEST blackberries ever!

If you are looking for a nice country drive head down to Lawenceburg and pick you some berries for your trip home!

The Family Secret to Great Sausage....Mud Pies

Going home to my farm makes me so happy. My family has been farmers as far back as we can trace. My fifth or so great grandfather actually delivered beef from his farm to George Washington and his troops. Today, farm fresh meat is all the rage. Over a year ago my dad and I started making sausage form our pigs. We sell it retail at my dad’s gas station. My dad also, sells tenderloin and biscuits from our pork. In the summer we have some of the best BBQ sandwiches you have ever tasted!

This is my Pa with some of his pigs many yrs ago

Our pork comes from our corn feed, registered Hampshire pigs. We cut it up so it will be easier to put into the grinder. It comes out of the grinder all nice and mushy like. This is perfect for mixing in the Bartholomew Family Recipe Seasoning. The secret to making the perfect sausage is the seasoning and the mixing of the seasoning. When I was a little girl I played for hours making mud pies. Mixing the seasoning into the ground pork is like playing in the mud-cause you are going to get real messy!

Fresh pork coming out of the grinder

Making sure I put the right amount of seasoning

One day my dad and I might expand into selling farm fresh beef from our farm.....following in the footsteps of my ancestors! To find out where to find farm fresh meat in your area go to http://www.picktnproducts.org/ .

Chocolate Milk and a Moon Pie

One of my favorite things in the world is chocolate milk. When I was a little girl my Pa would go to town and get me some chocolate milk (not an RC cola) and a Moon Pie almost every afternoon. The chocolate milk wasn't in plastic bottles, but in the carton. We would warm up the Moon Pie in the microwave and share it. Then wash it down with the chocolate milk. Sweet memories!

Whole Milk and Chocolate milk from Hatcher's Family Dairy.

This past week I had the opportunity to go to the Hatcher's Family Dairy in College Grove, TN. I have been out there numerous times for work. The Hatchers have been in the dairy business for a long time before they decided to start bottling their own milk. They now have a processing facility, retail store, do farm tours, and are experimenting with making their own ice cream.

Over a year ago, two of my out of state friends came down to visit Tennessee. We went all over Nashville and middle Tennessee. One of the stops was Hatcher's Family Dairy and they loved it!

Bart from Missouri and Ashley from North Dakota visit Hatcher's Family Dairy

Hatcher's Chocolate Milk is some of the best chocolate milk I have ever drank! It is so rich and thick. The Whole Milk is great too. Make sure you shake it real good, cause all of the cream is at the top. One thing that I love about buying milk straight from the farmer is that expiration date is longer. You don't have to ship it from the farm to the processing plant to the grocery store to your home. You should defiantly make a trip out to Hatcher's Family Dairy. If you can't make it out to the farm, you can get their milk in some stores. Check out their website for a listing of stores and to find out more http://www.hatcherfamilydairy.com/ .

Strawberry Photo Shoot

People ask me all the time what exactly do I do at my job. My title Agritourism Coordinator really confuses people. Agritourism is anything that brings people to the farm. Like Pick Your Own fruits and vegetables, wineries, cornmazes and pumpkin patches, farm tours and festivals, and on farm retail of fresh farm products. Everyday of work is different.

Yesterday, I had a photo shoot. The star of the photo shoot was surprisingly not me, but of fresh from a Tennessee farm strawberries. The state photographer, Andrew, and I spent the entire day outside taking pictures of strawberries and strawberry pickers. We went to three different Pick Your Own Strawberry patches in Portland, TN. The farms we stopped at were Bradley Kountry Acres in Cottontown, Bottomveiw Farms and Crafton Farms. The pictures that we take are used for marketing purposes like on http://www.picktnproducts.org/, brochures, or advertisements promoting Tennessee Farmers.

Andrew, State Photographer, taking pictures of strawberries at Bradley Kountry Acres

Most of our time taking pictures was at Bradley Kountry Acres. They are known for their strawberries, but have other fruits and vegetables as well. They have blackberries which were blooming, peach trees which had little greenish peaches, a greenhouse full of flowers, and all kinds of vegetables.

Fresh cut Broccoli (I took some home and it taste so much better than store bought)

When doing a photo shoot it is important to get pictures of the fruits and vegetables, but it is also important to get pictures of people. We did a mini photo glam shoot with this little girl who was about three. She had her blond hair in pig tails. She was soooo cute! She loved eating strawberries and this made for an adorable picture. You may see this picture in an advertisement soon!

My favorite picture of the day was of Mile Bradley, the farmer himself. If you go to his farm you now know what he looks like and be sure to go up and talk to him.

Mike Bradley with strawberries he grew.

These beautiful strawberries are some that I got from the Bradley's. It is an entire flat and I promise there was not one bad strawberry in the bunch. Unfortunately, I tried to make a cobbler out of some and it wasn't pretty. In the past, I have always had my mom there to help me and they turned out great. I got the recipe from my mom and made it. It smelt WONDERFUL! Yet, the crust wasn't raising to the top. Called my mom and she asked "Did you use self rising flour?" My response, "There is more than one type of flour?!?!?" Haha, lesson learned!

What to do with all these strawberries???

Strawberry Pickin Time!

Today, I battled a storm to go pick strawberries. Literally, it hailed (sounded like popcorn on my truck) and I saw lightning hit a transformer! It sure was worth it to get yummy strawberries from Valley Home Farm. It took me about an hour to get there from Nashville and it was such a beautiful drive. Once you get off I-24, there farms and amazing farm houses that have been there for years. With all the rain, everything was so green it made me want to pull my truck over and go walking through the lush pastures.

Ok, lets talk strawberries! My Pa always said if it rained on the first of the month that it would rain 15 days. Which has not been the best thing for the strawberry farmers. When its raining most people don't want to get out to buy strawberries, let alone get muddy picking them. To me getting a fresh straight from the farm strawberry is worth going through a small hurricane. Nothing that you can buy from a store can beat the taste of yummy strawberry you just picked yourself.

Valley Home Farm is located in Wartrace, which is in Bedford Co. It is a 320 acre farm with an on farm retail store. They sell strawberry jam, strawberry cakes and pies, strawberry bread, and of course strawberries. I absolutely just fell in love with their Strawberry Honey Popsicles! Love them!

Check out Valley Home Farm's website http://www.valleyhomefarm.com/

Picking strawberries is a fun activity for yourself, a group of friends, and the entire family! The month of May is strawberry season, so go visit a local farm or farmers market to find fresh strawberries! You can go to http://www.picktnproducts.org/ for a listing of strawberries in your area.