Berries and Bicycles

3rd May 2015

This month I’ll celebrate five years since graduating college, I was reminded of that distant past as my baby sister crams for finals and texts asking if we have ramen noodles she can “borrow.” While finals week may be a thing of the past, I’m glad the trusty procrastination events my college roommate and I put together years ago are still going strong: strawberry picking and Twilight weekend.

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Athens Twilight weekend has long been one of my favorite weekend of the year in the Classic City. While there’s no experience quite like a game day Saturday in Athens, Twilight brings an entirely different crowd, vibe and call for celebration to the city that can’t be missed.

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Alongside the bike race, we’ve made it somewhat of a spring tradition to make our way out to Washington Farms for rows and rows of fresh strawberries. Strawberry season is in full swing here in Georgia and I’m 100% on board for Spring’s cheesy cousin to fall apple picking.

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Thanks to Pick Your Own, you can consult this handy dandy calendar to determine harvest dates in your state for any number of fruits and vegetables. We’ve frozen the majority of our berries (smoothies for days), but I did manage to bake a little Strawberry Cobbler and may even try my hand at a jam thanks to this book, a gift from friends a few years ago.

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Here are a few other recipes I have an eye on:

As for the bike race, those guys never cease to amaze me. With a shorter course this year due to construction, we saw a bit more lapping from the riders, making the outcome that much more exciting. Thankfully the rain held off meaning fewer disastrous crashes, which was fine by me.

IMG_5065In the spirit of inspiration, Patrick and I took off on Sunday for my second ride out on my very own mountain bike. If you sped the GoPro footage up about 10X, maybe I’d look like I was going the speed of the Twilight road racers. I have quite a bit more to learn on that end, but hopefully I’ll be back soon with more to share than really muddy tires.

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