Weekend Fun with Mountains & Muscadines

This weekend we celebrated the start of less sweaty hiking and muscadine picking season.

It’s been so hot in the Upstate of SC, but with this weekend’s promising cooler weather forecast, we headed to the mountains with our little family. We were debating on driving to the mountains or the beach, but hiking in the mountains won today. Hopefully we will get in one more beach visit before the pleasant weather runs out!

So Friday night as we planned our day trip we were picking our hiking location and settled on Jones Gap. We have driven past this area so many times and always say, “We should check that out sometime.” So we thought this would be the weekend to check it out, until we read online that you have to reserve your parking spot ahead of time. There wasn’t a parking spot available until the following weekend! Yikes!

So recalculating we found Falls Creek Falls in Marietta, SC that was only a 1.7 miles hike and ended in a beautiful waterfall. And the waterfall is actually in Jones Gap, so we still made it to the same general area.

The internet writeup sounded perfect! I did notice the rating level “difficult” and terrain described at “strenuous”, but I thought that was only for out-of-shape, overweight people. About 10 mins in I realized I was the overweight, out-of-shape type of person that would find this trail both strenuous and difficult!

I also read online that there was a stream crossing in the 1.7-mile hike. Visions of falling into a rushing river in Colorado 16 years ago immediately came to mind and I was a little leery traversing this trail with the whole family in tow.

It also didn’t make me feel great when we met our first hiker going the opposite direction and our little one says, “Hi! My name’s Nora!” And the hiker responds, “Hi, Nora!” and then as she passes us says, “Someone get ready to carry Nora in about 1/2 a mile!”

Thankfully it wasn’t too terribly difficult, but I was huffing and puffing and broke a sweat fairly quickly. I was most amazed that our fierce little 4-year old climbed that trail like a champ! We kept offering assistance but she insisted that she could do it on her own, so much so she was climbing on all fours during the steep parts!

It took us about two and a half hours to complete this hike, but we were in no hurry. We took some time to check out the sights along the way like some huge boulders that were begging to be climbed, our friendly neighborhood snake, and a jaunt to the river edge mid-hike. We only had two slips that left us with some souvenir scrapes and bruises, but nothing major. Overall I would highly recommend this little hike for a day trip.

Before and after our hiking adventure we picked & processed some of our muscadines that have just started ripening up. If you aren’t familiar with muscadines they are a variety of grapes with very thick skin and 3-5 seeds on the inside.

They aren’t my favorite to eat fresh, but we keep a few around for those that do like to snack on them. Usually we make juice, and last year we made the prettiest pink jelly. I also attempted to make a small batch of wine, but it wasn’t great.

This year I made the traditional juice and jelly and we are going to give muscadine winemaking another try after seeking the counsel of my new friends at Grapes and Grains in Greenville. The thing about wine is that it takes so many steps and so much time to get a finished product that you won’t know if you’ve messed up, possibly weeks into the process, until the time comes for bottling. I think the main ingredient in winemaking is patience!

While we were shopping for wine supplies I sampled some of their home-brewed treats. We tried Kombucha for the first time and we were pleasantly surprised. After the wine experiment is over I may be interested enough to try making that as well. I think it’s marketed as somewhat of a health drink. If anyone has had a successful experience making Kombucha let me know!

Now looking forward to the week ahead is the start of my Fall Bible study at church. I am really excited for Wednesday to roll around. Not only because I get to learn and be inspired by the Word from two amazing Bible study teachers, but because it also symbolizes the start of things getting back to normal. Of course this year we will all don special face masks, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll wear the mask!

If any of you would like to participate in this Bible study, and you’re local, meet me at Horizon Church in Greenville, SC on Wednesdays at 9:30 am. Or like most of you that live very far from Greenville, you can follow along with our live stream or watching the recordings at your own pace at a time that suits your schedule. Any time spent studying the Word of God is worth it, and with the two talented leaders that lead our study, I know you will find something that speaks to you. This year we are studying the book 1 Samuel – A King Unlike the Nations written by a few different authors including one of my favorites, Jen Wilkin. I hope you join me!

Back on the farm, the figs are also ripe for the picking. We are nearly at the end of our fig season. I tried a new recipe this year for a fig appetizer with walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and balsamic vinegar.

It was tasty, but think if I were to make this again I might top the figs with chopped walnuts mixed with cheese and then drizzle with balsamic vinegar before baking. Figs cut in half are so pretty! I guess I have become the type of person that takes pictures of their food, sigh.

So from waterfalls to winemaking, we had an enjoyable labor day weekend, I hope you did as well!