Field Trip Notes: Staycation Edition

Looking back over my calendar I realized that I didn’t travel at all during the month of June. I am always going somewhere so this seemed really odd. I guess you could call it a stay-cation.

First of all, the Kings River water was released from the dam. Since we have been in a drought for a number of years, this was cause for celebration. We put the jet ski and the boat in and settled down by the river. What a difference water makes!

We are reading The Girls by Emma Cline. It was written by the sister of Roxanne’s good friend, Elsie.

Around my neighborhood, we mark seasons by the stages of fruits and nuts. We have come to the end of blueberry and apricot season. I took a walk and brought home a load of both.

These apricots are sold at a fruit stand in the orchard around the corner from out house.

 

Isn’t this mural outside of the Berry Lady Farm Store sweet?

 

Have you ever made a cake in an iron skillet? Well, I found a number of recipes, played around, and came up with a scrumptious upside down cake. I will admit right up front that I love cooking but I am the first to use short cuts. I used a cake mix instead of doing everything from scratch and was able to whip this up in no time.

Just melt some butter in a skillet, add brown sugar and fruit, top with a cake mix and bake. Easy!!!!

 

Sorry I didn’t take a photo of the upside-down cake after flipping it out of the skillet. I’ll need to make another one.

 

 

Apricot Blueberry Upside-Down Cake

Preheat oven to 350°

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 8 fresh unpeeled apricots, halved and pitted
• 1/3 cup of butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cake mix (I used Trader Joe’s vanilla cake mix)

1. Prepare the cake mix according to the directions on the box
2. Melt butter in a 10 inch cast iron skillet over a low heat
3. Add the brown sugar to the butter and stir it with a fork
4. Place the apricot halves in a circular pattern in the skillet
5. Scatter the blueberries between the apricots
6. Pour the prepared cake mix over the fruit
7. Bake the cake until it rises and springs back when pressed (45 mins)
8. Run a knife around the edge and carefully invert the skillet onto a platter. The cake should slide right out.
9. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Gayle Willems of the Berry Lady Farm Store (pictured above) displays a copy of Peter in Blueberry Land by Swedish author, Elsa Beskow. I decided that we needed a copy for our agriculture related book collection. I ordered it and it came in a miniature edition. I just love little versions of favorite books!

Originally written in 1901, this precious story tells about young Peter who wants to give his mother a basket of blueberries on her birthday. He has trouble finding any until he meets the blueberry king who shrinks Peter and calls to the blueberry children to help in the search.

Elsa Beskow’s books are so charming! They are old-fashioned as compared to most books published today but the illustrations are sweet and the stories are filled with magic and adventure. Share this book with a young friend along with some blueberries for a perfect summer treat.

Bocce ball is our favorite field trio game which we play wherever we go. This month we played at our friend’s, the de Hoops, dairy. The cows were very interested in what we were doing.

 

The Kingsburg Library just opened a special section for very young children. I took Thomas for his first library visit. He made a friend and into the local paper!

 

 

Have you ever stayed home for a vacation instead of traveling? Here’s a fun post with ideas about how to travel right where you are.

I’d love to hear about your vacation experiences in your own town.