Fruity Day with Friends

I promise. I really do go on a lot of interesting adventures. But with the recent death in the family, our adventures are few and far between right now.

On Thursday of this week, we did a repeat of my fruity adventure that I've already written about. This time we did it a little differently - and we brought along some friends.

We drove to Yalaha, a little less than an hour away. Since it was still early, we headed to Green Acres Farm first. I really had no idea if there would still be peaches or we'd have to be satisfied with only late blueberries. We parked the car, were handed our buckets and headed over to the peaches. If the peaches were delicious two weeks earlier, they were super delicious on Thursday. The trees weren't as full as they'd been earlier, but there were plenty of peaches for the 4 of us... and many more. We went and got our peaches weighed. I'd forgotten to tell our friends that only cash and check are accepted as payment so they were wiped out by the peaches. In addition, we were told that the late blueberries hadn't yet ripened and that better blueberry picking would be in two weeks.

Next stop was Yalaha Bakery. Oh, did I mention that our friends are from Germany? They were very anxious to see how authentic this bakery was. Sadly, I have no photos from our visit to the bakery because there was major reorganization going on at the time we were there.

It was super crowded when we arrived. My husband spotted the one loaf of rye bread that he really wanted to buy so we got in line at the bakery to make sure that bread was coming home with us. Our friends bought a whole grain loaf of bread. Once we had our breads, we were ready for lunch. We walked into the deli area only to find that while we had to look at the lunch menu in the deli area, we had to go back to the bakery to place our order. Back in line again. The folks working behind the counter seemed overwhelmed by the crowds. I wondered if Memorial Day weekend was a big baked goods consumption day. I really couldn't figure out why all the crowds.

We ordered our lunch and a bee sting, the dessert they are most known for, and headed outside to find a shady spot in which to eat. Lunch came out a few minutes later. I had a reuben with potato salad and sauerkraut on a pretzel roll. My husband had his reuben on a basler roll. One friend had the white bratwurst and for the life of me, I can't remember what our other friend ate. Was it authentically German? No, they didn't believe it was. Yes, bee sting is the signature dessert of Germany. But that wasn't similar to what they would eat in Germany. Even still, they said that lunch  was good and they enjoyed it. (For more authentic German food, they recommended Hollerbach's Willow Tree Cafe in Sanford. I've been there twice since January and while I had no idea if the food was authentic or not, it was very good, as was the live entertainment on a Friday night.)

Somehow over lunch we got back to talking about blueberries and we asked if they'd been to the blueberry winery. No, they hadn't. We told them about Whispering Oaks Winery in Oxford which was practically on the way home. A glass of wine was sounding pretty good to them about that time. Additionally, they were intrigued with the idea of wine made of blueberries. That was our next stop.

They loved the setting of the winery. We saw cows, sheep and goats once we drove through the gates. These are happy goats. (I'm not sure if they are still feed the mash from the wine, but that was the story we heard when the winery first opened and there's still a sign that reads Happy Goat Crossing along the driveway.

Our companions are lovers of dry red wine so they each ordered a glass of Delightfully Dry. (When we've introduced the winery to friends in the past, we've always recommended trying one of the samplers but since these friends expressed a strong preference for dry wine, it didn't make sense for them to be tasting some of the sweeter wines that would have been included in either the 7- or 4- flight samplers.) My husband had his favorite, Wildly Mild, and I opted for Sassy Sangria.

Since the last time we'd been to Whispering Oaks, they've enlarged their menu tremendously. A couple at the bar was enjoying Smokey Dogs Fish & Crackers, a smoked fish dip served with crackers, along with their wine. Our friends and I agreed that if we hadn't just eaten at Yalaha, we would have ordered the Happy Goat Cheese Plate.

Sitting outside, we shared what we learned about the winery on our first visit a few years back. We stumbled across the winery on our way to The Villages on what turned out to be opening weekend. One of our friends enjoyed the wine. The other, not so much so. They enjoyed the atmosphere though and were impressed by the menu. The winery now serves beer. too. That was the clincher for the friend who prefers grape wines. They'll be back. As will we.