We Have Arrived In Our Promised Land

Yesterday at the office I found myself too busy to take a lunch.  I had brought my lunch to eat at my desk so that I could get outside on such a beautiful day to walk.  But the walk never came.  So, I took my lunch hour at the end of the day to walk.

But as I got nearer to the park, I thought to myself, "I'd rather drive on home and walk there so that I don't have to deal with the five o'clock traffic on the way home'.  So, I kept driving and arrived at home just a few minutes past five.  Jim was already home as we had a crew out clearing the place for our barn.  He was on the tractor when I arrived, but got down to show me where they had cleared the trees and how different it was looking out there. 

After we walked around 'oohing' and 'aahing' the great work they had done, Jim asked me to show him where NOT to bush-hog because of the dewberry plants.  As we walked around the property, I noticed that there were areas where the dewberries were already ripening.  I tried picking, but soon ran out of space in my hand.  So, I walked back to the house and grabbed one of my vegetable baskets, changed my shoes for muck boots, (doused myself in Skin So Soft Bug Spray) and headed back out.

About an hour and fifty sore muscles later, I had gathered about a quart of fresh dewberries.  (And I saw only one snake -- and that just a tail.  I left him that patch!)

When I showed our abundance to Jim, he commented "Dewberry pie and ice cream for dinner."  Well, I don't know how to make a dewberry pie...but I can sure whip up a dewberry cobbler.  And so, I did!

It was delicious!  (I had a small piece despite cobbler not being on my Daniel Plan approved diet.  90-10 y'all!) 

As I picked and ate the dewberries last night, I kept thinking of how the Lord was blessing us with food that we didn't cultivate.  We didn't plant them...didn't care for the vines.  They were just a gift!  A sweet reminder of home and family.  I thought of the Israelites as they took the Promised Land and were fed from fields and fruit that they had not planted (Joshua 24:13)...and thanked God for our Promised Land...our Home.

This simple dessert holds so much meaning for me.  My dad just taught me last year that these were not blackberries...but in fact dewberries.  And I used my Grandma Jenkins' peach cobbler recipe.  It was just so sweet...so unexpected...such a gift.  Thank you, Jesus!

Wanna make a cobbler?  Here's how I do mine.

Grandma Jenkins' Peach Cobbler

 

1 cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup milk

1 can peaches

1 stick butter

 

 

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Place butter in baking dish and place in oven to melt.  Mix together sugar, flour and milk until all lumps are gone.  Pour over melted butter.  Pour peaches over batter.  Place in oven for 30 - 45 minutes or until browned on top.   Serve with delicious Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.

 

For this dewberry cobbler, I placed two cups of dewberries in a boiler with a cup of sugar and two tablespoons of butter.  I brought it to boil for about three minutes and then turned it off to cool a bit while I made the batter.  I tasted the dewberries to ensure that I had enough sugar in them as they tend to be a bit tart.

 

Disclaimer: This isn't actually my Grandma Jenkins' recipe.  She didn't use a recipe.  So as she made it one day, I took her handfuls of this and that and measured them out so that I could at least have a starting point.  But it tastes like hers!!!  So, I must have gotten pretty close.