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Sweet
Summer Time!
We took off
on our first day of summer break to pick berries at the Bella
Vista Ranch in Wimberley, TX. We had a berry good time!
The Bella Vista
supplies baskets to collect the berries. We each filled two baskets,
I think they were $2.25 each. The berries were plentiful, sweet
and messy. Afterwards, Marian and I got a sneak preview of the Bella
Vista's frantoio (the Italian word for olive press) as well as a
talk about the art of olive oil making from the owner Jack Dougherty,
also known as the 'olive guy'. We visited with the CO-owner and
wife of the olive guy Pat. She says the best thing she ever did
was to leave her predictable city life in California, move out to
the rugged Texas hill country and attempt the bizarre idea of being
Texas's first olive oil company.
We only had
a few hours to spend on this trip since Paul Ray had to be back
in Austin at 2:00 for a birthday party. It took about an hour to
get there which left us two hours for picking and visiting. That
seemed like just about the right amount of time.
We made blackberry
smoothies and blackberry pie when we got back home. Yummy!
The smoothie
recipe was from the Bella Vista's brochure:
1 Pint Vanilla
frozen yogurt
1 Pint Fresh Blackberries (one basket)
3/4 Cup Skim milk
Wash the berries
thoroughly in two rinses of cold water. Remove all sand, leaves
and other particles.
Place all ingredients in blender. Cover the blender carafe and blend
the mixture at medium speed for 30 to 45 seconds. Serve in your
favorite drinking glass.
Black Berry
Pie:
3 cups blackberries,
washed
1 teaspoon
butter, sweet
1 tablespoon flour
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
Line pie plate with pie crust. Dredge the blackberries with sugar,
flour and salt Place the mixture in the pie crust. Cut butter in
small pieces, and dot the top of the blackberry mixture. Wet edges
of the under crust, cover with upper crust, press edges slightly
together. Bake in moderate oven for about 35 minutes.
Recipe from FreeRecipe.org
Find
out more about the Bella Vista Ranch.
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