The following is Scott Fais' weekly blog detailing discoveries made while traveling through Florida and along the road of life.
Super Foods.
They're like Super Markets, Super Heroes and Super-Sized Combo meals.
With “super duper” the rage, Lakeland is getting into the super-fruit business. Through the first week of June, everything at the Shady Oak Farm is turning blue.
“One of our main rules, we tell everybody 'You have to come back with a blue tongue,'" says Shady Oak Farm office manager Retta Faye “Sunshine” Baucom.
On the day we visited, the bubbly Retta Faye wore her best overalls and played perfect hostess.
Blueberries, more than 3 million of them, are ready for the picking. There are six different varieties to plop into your bucket.
Prices are per pound. If you pick the berries yourself, expect to dish out $6 per pound. If you have Retta and her crew do it, expect to pay $7.50 a pound.
Visit on a Monday and you'll also get to pick out a blueberry muffin and enjoy fresh coffee for free. Or pack a picnic and sit in the shady grove overlooking the pond.
Retta suggests saving a little part of your lunch to toss in the water.
"After you get through eating, you can throw your food scraps into the pond and watch the fish and the turtles fight."
Besides Blueberries, the Shady Oak Farm offers other fresh produce.
"Did you know, you can eat squash blooms?,” Retta asked me at one point.
“PROVE IT!” I demanded. And then with that, she ate the yellow flower right off the vine.
“You can deep fry it!" she suggested. Sounds good to me.
Until next week, safe travels.
-SCOTT
To read a text version of the Tankful story on Blueberry season at Shady Oak Farm as it first aired on television, click here.