Try picking some blackberries.....

With the stress of cheffing on the show for the first time under my belt, and, with the final (hopefully) edits for our new book completed, and Father's Day over at my shop completed for another year, all I can say is that it was a "stressful week".
Soooo, I grabbed a plastic bag and headed out early yesterday morning to ....pick blackberries.
As a kid this time of year was great, blackberries on cereal, blackberries just plain and oh, on homemade ice cream and the homemade cobblers, well, you get the idea.
The stress of the week just melted away like a fine scoop of that homemade ice cream on a hot summer day and the berries (small this year due to the dry conditions of N. GA.) just continued to mound up in my bag.
I wondered as people drove by, some smiling, some frowning some just looking, well, indifferent, I wondered, that if I could just get a plastic bag in their hands on this beautiful sunny, sultry Sunday morning in beautiful N. GA, with the dew of the early morning making those black jewels stand out beautifully, against their equally beautiful but not so ripe crimson bothers and sisters, just beggin to be picked. I wondered if all of those folks could have joined me on this Father's Day journey, would it be as memorable, happy, stress relieving and yes, a little nostalgic for them as it had been for me? I think, no I am sure it would have.
So please, just grab a bag, head out to your favorite picking spot (keep a vigilant eye out for roadside harvest spots during the week) by yourself or better yet, with the ones you love, and just pick blackberries for awhile....don't mind the thorns or the chiggers (we didn't as kids), juuuust pick and think..... cobbler, ice cream and then do what all great chefs do....taste along the way, make sure there OK!
Oh, your hands will be stained, but that's OK too, because those stains tell the world that you stopped and picked some blackberries....they'll smile and they'll understand!

Fats