Blueberries, and the Blueberry Festival
Blueberry Season
Gordon Picking Blueberries
Welcome to Plant City, Florida
We are spending the day doing some Blueberry Picking out at
Keel and Curley Winery. Located at:
5210 Thonotosassa Road
Plant City, Florida 33565
https://keelandcurleywinery.com/
It’s Blueberry Season and every year they host a big event with vendors and live music, and invite in the public to enjoy the festivities and to perhaps even do some
Blueberry Picking.
Veronica with her Buckets
And as for me, I found a nice little spot to sample them. 🙂
We also brought some nice foods for a Trunk Picnic to enjoy for ourselves. It was a very fun day to spend with our family.
Our picnic included foods we brought from home and some that we bought from vendors, and of course, plenty of Blueberries.
See our Write up Below
Bon Appetite!
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Also Check Out Our:
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Julie and Gordon
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One week before the Blueberry picking above, we stopped off at Keel and Curley for a visit:
Keel and Curley Pub and Gift Shop
Henry Flagler and Henry B. Plant
Two Henry’s Beers
(I guess you can figure out which one Plant City is named after.)
Prior to the Blueberry Festival we stopped off at the Winery/Brewery to look into possibly having our daughter and her fiance’s wedding reception here.
The Restaurant and The Pub
Me, looking over the menu because after our tour we will be eating dinner here.
Gordon Checking out the Two Henry’s Beers
Keel and Curley is a Winery and a Brewery
Waiting for the Bride and Groom to Arrive
The Party Barn
Veronica and Brian have Arrived
Just checking out possible wedding reception venue’s.
The Pond
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Pretty Gazebo and Grape Vines
Veronica and Brian Checking out the Veranda
Two Henry’s Light Fixture
Hanging inside the Party Barn
The picnic tables would have to go but we all loved the beautiful bar in the back.
Touring the Winery Grounds
Keel and Curley is a Winery that makes Fruit Wines, such as Blueberry, Key Lime, Strawberry, Tangerine, Peach, Raspberry, Wildberry, etc.
The Winery and the Blueberry Fields Forever…..
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The Ripened Blueberries
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Inside the Winery Building
The Beautiful Labels
The Cobalt Blue, Blueberry Wine Bottles
I LOVE all the Wine Labels
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The Brewery
Brian and Veronica inspecting the Brewery Part of the Tour
This is all so Interesting!
The Two Henry’s Label Sign
I do LOVE the Multicolored Bicycle
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Key Lime and Peach Wines
With our tour finished we are back in the pub and ready for some wine with some appetizers and some dinner.
Appetizers of Gator Tail and Calimari
The Wedding Guide
Dinner has Arrived!
That would be Brian’s big Burger and Fries
Gordon and Veronica’s Shrimp Tacos
And MY Delicious Mushroom Veggie Burger with Fries! 🙂
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Now It’s Blueberry Picking Day!
And, we managed to park right next to these two giant Ant Mounds.
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We parked in a huge field and this little gate is the only entrance.
Parking was $10.00.
These are Strawberry’s
There were a few still left on the plants.
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There were many Chickens
All of these chickens provide the eggs for the Keel and Curley restaurant.
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I came across a beautiful Jasmine Vine creeping all over this old dilapidated fence.
Jasmine Vine Creeping
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The Vendor’s
Vendors and Grapevines
Gordon Buying our Keel and Curley Wines
The Blueberry Vines were on Sale for $10.00 each.
There was also lots of wine sampling going on.
We bought some Blueberry Jam here. It was delicious but they loaded it with lemon juice and you ended up tasting the lemon before you did the Blueberry. But still we love sampling other people’s wares.
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Our Grand Dog Chewie is Here!
Brian with Chewie
Chewie was Afraid of the Cows 🙂
It was so nice that so many people were able to bring their dogs with them. We saw several! I’m glad that they don’t discriminate against our four legged friends.
People Milling About
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We found a vendor that was selling his homemade spices for dips so I bought a few. Sometimes they are just nice to have at home in the kitchen pantry to eat with some sour cream or Greek yogurt when you feel like having dip and chips.
Of course, Gordon will complain that we don’t need to buy those because he can make that kind of thing. And I will always reply that, “Yes, I know you can. But this way you now don’t have to. Your time is worth something. You don’t always have to be the one that feeds all of us.”
(I know that by heart because I’ve said it so many times throughout our marriage.)
It was Quite Delicious!
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RUM CAKES
We also bought some delicious rum cakes. My favorite was the very fattening Red Velvet. I only had a few bites but boy was it ever good!
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My Accidental Selfie
I love it! I didn’t even know that I had taken it until I downloaded the photos from the camera onto the computer and that’s when I saw it. It’s my favorite photo!
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On the Veranda
This is right outside of the pub/restaurant.
Lots of people having fun, and live music.
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Now for Some Blueberry Picking
You just tell them how many buckets that you want and then off you go. You can pick as many or as few as you like. The cost is $5.00 a pound. They weigh your haul when you are finished.
It was actually a lot of fun. The weather was sunny and warm, but not hot.
Brian and Gordon
Gordon and Veronica picked the most berries.
Look at these Beautiful Blue Berry’s
(I spelled it that way on purpose.) 🙂
I found a nice little spot to myself.
You of course want to pick the berry’s that are either blue or purple but I was picking the green as well. The green will ripen up. The hardest part was sorting the green from the blue.
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Brian and Chewie in the Shade
Don’t forget that your pets need water too! As thirsty as you may be, they are probably more as they are out in the sun wearing a fur coat!
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You know, it was a lot of fun but I’m getting tired and hungry so let’s pay for our berries and head to the car for our picnic.
With all of our buckets combined we ended up with over 6 pounds of Blueberries.
All the good recipes that we have planned for these berries and we can’t wait to bring them to you!
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FAT ONE
N’SYNC’s Joey Fatone
Fatone = Fat One
Joey Fatone
This is his food truck where they brought a bit of New York to Florida via the foods. This is where Veronica and Brian ate. Joey even gave them their beverages.
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Now it’s time to head to the car for our picnic lunch in the trunk.
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I guarantee that no one at the Blueberry Festival is eating quite as nice as we are.
Oh, there is lots of delicious foods here such as Hot Dogs, Taco’s, Cuban’s, Cakes, Cookies, BBQ, Corn on the Cob, BBQ Chicken, etc. but we like bringing our own food not only to save some money, but because we know all the ingredients in our food to fit our dietary needs.
There is nothing wrong with eating out but we had been eating out quite a bit lately and needed to get back to our Food Roots.
Goat Cheese with Fresh Blueberry’s and our Delicious Merlot Cheese
We of course brought along some water and a colander to wash our freshly picked berry’s so that we could enjoy them with our Trunk Picnic.
This was simple to throw together. I gathered everything the day before. I knew that I wanted a few snacky foods to eat with the blueberry’s, as in the cheeses above. But I also wanted some good bread and crackers, my favorite marinated artichoke hearts, some nice olives, dried prunes, and some copacola Italian spiced ham.
Gordon Fixing his (Paper) Plate
Of course we had our Blueberry Wine in our Keel and Curley wine glasses.
We even bought some nice tiles from a vendor that were perfect with our meal.
The red berry’s are red peppercorns that I brought along to sprinkle onto our cheeses.
The bread was exquisite!
It was a Cranberry, Raisin, Nut Bread that we will be eating again in the future as it was so good.
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The bread was so good that I had it for breakfast the next day, toasted.
Another tile we bought from a vendor at the festival. Pretty, huh?
And just was we were eating our picnic lunch we spotted some wild raspberries underneath the tree.
A Great Picnic, Great Food, Great Wine, Great Day!
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BLOOPERS!!
I am sick and tired of picking these frickin berry’s!!!
Help ME! I’m trapped in a blueberry field and FORCED to pick blueberries by my tyrannical husband! O.k., so it was my idea to pick the berry’s but I regret it and I’m sending out an S.O.S.!!! Send help! And a chair, just cause….
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If you would like to check out our homemade Blueberry Scones:
