One of my favorite things about summer is the myriad of festivals around the Charlottesville area. On Saturday, we drove 4o short minutes from town to discover a little piece of heaven that is Hill Top Berry Farm. Nestled within luscious green hills, Hill Top is a small berry farm whose landscape is reminiscent of my beloved Tuscany.
Ok, maybe not Tuscany per se, but it was really a wonderful sight nonetheless. Right?
Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the overwhelmingly hot and humid summer—and we are talking about a relentless heat wave of 100-degree days—dried out all the fruit trees. What I thought would be the best summer find (imagine the cobbler I could have baked!), turned out to be a sad reminder that the weather does control our food source.
But not all is lost. Apparently, we are supposed to get some much-needed rain in the coming weeks and I bet all the dried, sad little blackberries will be coming back to life.
The ripe and fatty ones we tried, however, were fabulous. So, until next time, happy picking!
