20 Apr - Lane Southern Orchards and Preparing to Depart

This morning we took one of our daily strolls around the campground.  This place is huge!  They put the short stay folks like us near the front in nice pull-through spots.  Most of the other long term or seasonal campers are in back-in spots towards the rear of the campground.  It's interesting while we are out walking the dog, to just look at all the different RV's!

So towards the back is a nice big fishing pond, a nice sized dog run area for big dogs and there is a pasture area with many goats!  They seem pretty tame and not phased by the dog run or by anyone walking by.  Well, Liberty thought she would let them know she was in their area and one of the goats wanted to be friends!  She surely could not figure out why that thing had horns coming out of his head!!

 

 After our walk we buttoned up the RV and left Liberty in charge there.  We took off north up I-75 and then west a bit to the Lane Southern Orchards.  On the way we passed groves of pecan trees and peach trees.  They were usually together and I'm not sure why that is. 

Later we would learn the peach trees are trimmed such that the middle upper branches are removed so the peaches grow along the sides and are easier to harvest by hand.  The taller, thinner trees are pecan trees.

Primarily pecan trees here

Soon we arrived at Lanes Southern Orchards.  Not too busy this morning but I bet it is very busy during the prime tourist season.

There are some outside activities such as an orchard tour but it is not operating right now.  Inside there is a shopping area with anything and everything "peaches", a farmers market area, and a snack shop specializing in peach goodies.  We met the nicest lady who answered all of our questions about peaches and pecans.  

This chart shows the various varieties of peaches with a code that follows.  The code pertains to the pit, as she explained it, and whether it clings to the flesh, partially clings or does not cling:  Clingstone, Semi-Freestone, and Freestone.  Bottom line is we are obviously too early for fresh peaches, so they have some delicious canned peaches in mason jars and many other peach products.  We quickly decided we needed a cart!

  Doreen shopped through the store and I quickly noticed a gentleman selling boiled peanuts, which has been on my list for this trip.  I may have tried them once on a previous trip in the south along side the road, but if so it had been many years.  He had plain boiled peanuts and Cajun-flavored.  He offered me a small cup to taste one of the Cajun-flavored boiled peanuts before I bought them and one bite sold me.  Good stuff!  I ended up with a container full, probably a cup.

Before long we had a cart full of goodies:  a bog of salted/toasted pecans, a jar or peach halves (perfect with cottage cheese), peach wine, fresh tomatoes, peach salsa, fresh strawberries, cherry tomatoes, a loaf of cinnamon/pecan bread, spicy canned Brussel sprouts, and of course my boiled Cajun peanuts!

We headed over to the snack shop where they had just pulled some fresh peach cobbler out of the oven.

I had a small with peach ice cream and Doreen had a piece of fried peach pie with a scoop of peach ice cream also.  They were both awesome!

Doreen's fried peach pie with peach ice cream

My warm peach cobbler with peach ice cream

When we departed we drove around the parking lot a bit which was surrounded by strawberry fields!

Pecan trees in the distance

🎵 Strawberry fields forever! 🎵.

That was really awesome.  I am really glad we decided to drive up here and visit Lane's.  We left there are made a stop at Lowes for a couple things and then back to the campground to do our preparatory work as we leave here tomorrow and travel south to near Valdosta GA and Grassy Pond Recreation Area which is run by Moody Air Force Base.  We will be there a couple nights and then south to Florida!

Back at the RV, I just had to chow down on those Cajun boiled peanuts while they were still warm, though!  My Air Force buddy Brad said I am officially a Southern Redneck now!