Peach picking is not for the faint of heart. I, like many others, love a good peach. Nothing says 'summer' like berries, peaches and watermelon. We're fortunate in Tennessee that all these goodies grow locally and we can enjoy them freshly picked and sun kissed.
In theory.
After my experience at Bottom View, I will never pick my own peaches again. In fact, I'm quite happy to leave peaches to Georgia and Nene Leakes. Have you ever picked a peach? If not, let me regale with how to do so. First, you enter into a grove of trees with forebodingly long tendrils where branches are on other trees. Then, you step carefully because the heavy fruit, typically, falls to the earth and litters the ground in golden-red carcasses. Then you look up in the trees. You look up to the trees to pick your fruit... and that's when you see it. Them. The bugs. The colonies and colonies of beetles, spiders and other flying things that love the sticky sweet taste of peaches as much as humans do. When I saw one bug, I thought, "That's gross but I'm in the country at an organic farm. Good for them for doing without the pesticides." When I saw other bugs, I got a bit creeped out but I kept it together. After all, it was my idea to come out to the country and pick peaches. When I saw peach after peach that resembled black softballs (due to being covered with ravenous beasts), I cussed in front of a child, ran and SHRIEKED. Yes, I shrieked. There was no barbaric yop. There was only the spine-chilling, high-pitched, take-the-child-but-leave-me shrill of bug-induced terror.
The satisfaction of picking my own fruit can't compare to the "I'll never teeellll" rocking-back-and-forth trauma of the bugs... so... so many bugs. Everywhere. Without fear. As I said that day, "Eff these peaches." I will buy from The Peach Truck and keep it moving.
That said, the blueberry and apple picking at Bottom View was without incident and both fruit were abnormally sweet. The blueberries were some of the best that I've ever had. That's not an exaggeration. The crisp green apples surprised me with their clean, tart taste. Apples come in to season in mid-July and stay there until the end of the year. I prefer green apples to red so I was quite pleased. The peaches were a different story. Through no fault of the farm's, the rains jacked up the yield and quite a few of them showed signs of rot and scabbing. The ones on the tree weren't particularly large (another telltale sign of a bad year). The pre-picked peaches, though, looked much better and were of marketplace size. That's right, you can buy pre-picked fruit but what's the fun of that?
Speaking of fun, the farm has a zip line, pumpkin patches, ice cream, tins of Charles Chips (!), interesting buildings, stockades, a 'jail', a train, a cat & dog who couldn't be bothered with screaming city slickers, a 'post office', a lake, and an old '76 (or, was it 'Gulf'?) sign. My party and I were charmed by the farm and the proprietor. We had to give our Kentucky credentials so she didn't put us* out. She told us that many school groups and weddings come to the property. I don't doubt it. I bet it's gorgeous, come fall. Bottom View offers a terrific excuse to get out of the city and reconnect with what makes this part of the country/state so nice. Just be sure to buy your peaches pre-picked.
*I am not taking sole blame of screaming. read more