When you have been trapped inside of your house for what feels like months at this point, it is only natural to feel like you are itching to get out of the house. I am not saying I do not respect the quarantine restrictions, as they are very important, but it definitely gets claustrophobic in the house. This Wednesday, April 29, my friends and I could not take it any longer. We decided to take a road trip down to Sumterville, Florida, and pick some peaches. It would be a wonderful way to support local Florida businesses!
The drive from our hometown, Jacksonville, Florida, was about a 2 and a half hour adventure in itself. When we stopped for a bathroom break at a small gas station and found a rooster cawing in the parking lot all three of us had a “we’re not in Kansas anymore” moment. Coming from a big urban city like Jacksonville, we could not help but giggle at a country sight like our new feathered friend.
Once we arrived at the peach picking farm called Shady Brook Peaches, we were really excited to pick the delicious fruits out in the hot sun. It had been a HOT minute (pun intended) since we were able to enjoy time out in the sun with each other.
The wonderful people who worked at the farm happily prepared our buckets and drove us around back to the peach trees in a fun little buggy. We bounced around in the back as the driver hit various bumps and roots. He dropped us off where ~the best~ peaches were and let us get to work.
Let me tell you, we went to WORK on those peach trees. Adrian, one of the friends I went with, scoured the trees far and wide for the perfect, roundest, most juicy peaches. And of course, we had to stop along the way for pictures. You know what they say, “b*tches love the ‘gram” (follow @bit_of_becca for endless peach content #shamelessplug.) Being in a field in the middle of Florida, however, meant tons of lovebugs, which led to several creepy-crawly photobombs.
By the time our buckets were filled to the brim (literally, you were not allowed to go past the rim of the bucket – it had to be even) we had thousands of pictures to sort through and sweat dripping down our backs. I have not laughed that hard in a long time, so hard my cheeks hurt from smiling.
After we were escorted to the cashier along the bumpy ride back, (none of our peaches escaped our buckets, thank God) and we checked out at the front desk, we realized just how many peaches we had picked. It was like we had read each other’s minds as we all wondered just what we were going to do with ALL of these peaches.
This is the thought that created a peach monster. Mikenzie, my other friend, was peeling peaches for what seemed like hours. Adrian and I decided to tackle baking peach cobbler from scratch, while Kenz (the more reasonable of the bunch) decided to try making peaches and cream. All I can say is this: we will be extremely tired of peaches once we’re through with the mountains that we picked. I mean, it was $75.00 worth of peaches!
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest!