Up until coming home I had been working for the Hannaford Bakery in Wells, ME., which helped considerably with having cake hands. Generally so much time passes between cakes that I lose my cake agility, I forget how much to do with what, and the little things I always relearn along the way. If I did this all the time, I would remember it from the beginning.
We began by picking the blueberries. I meant to get my blueberries from a place in Ashburnham, but apparently they were having an issue and their blueberry patches were closed until Thursday. I couldn't wait to pick them on Thursday so we traveled to the Carlson Orchards in Harvard after reading good reviews online.
The orchards were beautiful! If only we could have stayed longer. We ended up leaving later than planned because of a fish tank issue at home (Nan almost drained the whole tank all over the floor in an attempt to move the filter. Thankfully that situation was taken care of). We left for the orchards and took two gallon buckets lined with plastic into the patches. I had scheduled two hours for picking, an hour of which was eaten into by the fish tank situation. We powered through, getting two gallons in about an hour.
They were delicious!!! Carlson Orchards has "Over 120 acres of freshly grown apples, peaches, nectarines, cherries, blueberries, and raspberries. Located 45 minutes west of Boston. Open from mid-July to December for a variety of pick-you-own crops & cider mill tours. Retail store open year round from 9 am - 5 pm. Call (800) 286 - 3916 or visit us at www.carlsonorchards.com"
I checked the blueberries off my list and stuck them in the fridge for later. Meanwhile, Sarah and I had lots to get done. We only left ourselves nine days between ending work in Wells, ME and going back to school. Our to-do list kept growing and time was running out.
I had offered for us to watch my baby brother, so we went and picked him up. He was a joy and we dropped him off a day later and went straight to Hannaford to load up on supplies. That morning, however, I had a dentist appointment for a cleaning and he found an old filling that an xray showed decay below. He asked if he could open it up and take a look since he had the time, and I said yes. He discovered an unhealthy nerve below and gave me a referral for an emergency root canal. I made an appointment for Thursday. It was both lovely and terrible timing: one more thing to get done before school and yet if I had waited I wouldn't have gotten it done for a while.
I picked up my medication at the Hannaford's pharmacy while shopping for supplies and we went home to create a game plan.
The wedding was at Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough, NH.
Also, Sarah helped me with A LOT of the cake. I hope she had fun and I am so grateful. All photo credit goes to her.
Anyways, here are the pictures. For photo descriptions, visit my Facebook Page Jen Reardon's Cakes.
Until next time,
Jen Reardon
