Tennessee Summer Treats

Jackson offered me a choice: we could either go on a date in the morning on Friday or in the evening. And no, they weren’t the same plans. And no, I couldn’t pick both because he has to save some date ideas for later, greedy girl.

I picked the morning date.

Then I picked in the morning!

Be ready at 7 he said. And wear close toed shoes.

Jackson took us to the new Frothy Monkey in East where Post East used to be (RIP but also thank you for the wine glasses and drink dispensers at that one yard sale. I’ll always remember you). They’re still working out some kinks service knowledge wise, but the food is tasty as ever.

With our quinoa bowl and oatmeal in tow, we hopped back into the car. We winded our way through the Southern countryside, passing farms and small homesteads and the occasional bait-tackle-beer-breakfast stores.

We were first to arrive at Kelly’s Berry Farm.

This tender acreage off the pike past Lebanon was bursting with berries. We arrived at the tail end of strawberry season, "so you’re really going to have to look,” the farmhand warned us. But we struck rich in blueberry season and even gathered first fruits from the thornless blackberry bushes.

We decided to pick in the order that would leave our backs stretched out properly by the end. These are the kinds of things you have to think of when you’re nearly 30 and no one warned you that joints start yelling at 26 these days. Strawberries low to the ground, hiding in the shade of the plant’s large leaves. Blackberries from knee to waist height. Blueberries raining down from above my head.

Up next: sharing all the ways we used the berries. We gathered 6 pounds of strawberries, 4 pounds of blackberries, and 10 pounds of blueberries. Yup.

We highly recommend Kelly’s Berry Farm whose products are also available at farmers markets throughout Nashville.

xo

em