If you live in South Florida and you haven't yet, you should. After completing our primary mission of finding Bee Heaven (see previous post ), we wondered since we were already down in the Redlands, Knaus Berry still open for the season? This place would be way easier to find than Bee Heaven. Unfortunately, after looking up the number and calling, we get a recording that tells us they are closed until November. Yep, they are seasonal. Much like the farmers markets in the Midwest close in the fall, and reopen in the spring (winter kinda rough), Knaus Berry and others like it close in the spring and opens in the fall (summer heat kinda sticky). I don't remember when it was exactly that Lisa and I first went down there, but it was my dissertation supervisor who mentioned this place in the Redlands that had sticky buns that are like crack.
She then made our particularly tedious Saturday meeting way better by producing said sticky buns, which she had been storing in her freezer. Of course microwave reheated baked goods is not generally an appetizing concept, but these babies were delicious. Dem did eat well good and the decision to seek out Knaus Berry ourselves was made.
Knaus Berry Farm is also a U-pick tomatoes and strawberries. It is owned and operated by the Knaus family, who I have learnt aren't Mennonites like we previously thought, they also are not Amish, but are members of a German Baptist sect, popularly referred to as Dunkers .
As typical of many of New Baptist faiths, the Knaus' reputation for exceptional baked goods is also solid. The sticky buns, milk shakes, and other baked goods are perhaps what the Knaus' farm is best known for, but they also have fresh produce. On the day we went we picked up two dozen incredibly crack-like sticky buns, some insanely good herb rolls (scarfed down a dozen in all of 2 days), tomatoes, a massive head of lettuce, cilantro, spinach, scallions, and onions.
Before picking up this stuff though, we did head into the fields with our little plastic crates to reap tomatoes and strawberries ourselves. As a rule of thumb though, when you going to do the U-pick thing, its best to get an early start. Find out when the farm opens and be there as close to that time as you can to get first pick and avoid long lines. Lisa and I got there either late morning or early afternoon. The lines for the milkshakes, bakery, and produce shop were already pretty long and di parking lot did ram like dem did a gi weh tings fi free.
The staff inside is pretty efficient though, so the lines move quickly and you can slip into one of the parking spaces that are vacated at the same pace that the lines move. We were a little too late to pick our own strawberries (the field was already thoroughly pillaged) and we only ended up with one. But it was fun to head out back and check out the lines of strawberry bushes and dig through them a little bit.
What we lost out on picking our own strawberries we made up for in tomatoes.
See di one likkle strawberry peepin' out? So, to recap, go early. If you are like us and sometimes don't quite manage that, never mind the lines, try every baked good that catches your fancy, buy whole heap a sticky buns for you and for your friends to try - dem can freeze, try a milkshake and tell me how it tastes, and even if you are too late to pick your own strawberries, pick some tomatoes - they will have strawberries up front too.
Hopefully, there will be more Redlands adventures down the road. I really enjoy the feeling that we have suddenly driven out of farin and ended up in another country entirely. Mek sure if you haven't, do some exploring in our South Florida backyard of your own. Whole heap a fun food tings out there to do and one thing is almost always certain, yu wi find someting whe eat good.
PS
Pictures courtesy of Lisa.
No comments:
Post a Comment