A popcorn find & (of course) Manatee

Sunday March 3, 2013
Site 20, Blue Spring State Park
Orange City, Florida

 

Baby it’s cold outside

It was down to freezing last night.  In Florida.  This is crazy.  It was only 2 degrees colder than that in Pikesville Maryland where Carrie lives.

 

 

But, remember the silver lining,  the manatee are here in force.  I go out to see them early.  The winds are blowing.  It is cold.  The water surface is being ruffled by the wind which makes the picture taking a bit tricky.

 

Later in the day, they tell us the count for this morning is 199.  WOW!

 

 

I should have worn gloves.  Can you see the manatee gathered around the bottom of the steps??

Too cool!

For some reason they like to swim under the steps and hang out.  Sometimes 4 or 5 of these massive creatures try to get under there together.   An average adult manatee weights 1600 lbs. 

 

Here’s a tell tale tail.

Can’t see anything but the tail here under the steps.

 

 

Looks like a conference to me.  Don’t you wonder what they are discussing?

 

 

This is what they call a barrel roll.  S/he rolls all the way over.  Sometimes their tails come out of the water or they slap them on the way down.  For fun I guess.   They do seem to have a lot of fun.

 

 

But then I would too if I could lay around and rest in a 72 degree spring run and then go out in the river and eat 10% of my body weight in salad and come back to the warm waters and hang out with my family and friends.   Nice life except for their only predator – man.

 

  

 

After walking from one end to the other on the wooden board walk, about 1/4 to 1/2 mile, we determine that today most of the manatee are not at the spring boil but in the lower portions of the spring run.

 

 

It will be interesting to see if they change their heavy concentration spots at various times during the day.

 

 

 

The sun rises higher in the sky.  The glare recedes off of the water.  The wind calms down.  My pictures become somewhat clearer.

 

We stop at every viewing spot of course and notice as the crowds pick up when the park opens to the public.  

 

 

By 11am, the parking lot is nearing full.  The temperatures have warmed up although not to what I call picnic weather but the folks are here with food and games enjoying the park and the manatee.

 

The manatee nuzzle each other a lot.  And the little ones stick close to their moms.

 

 

 

 

Ok I know, enough all ready, but they are so terrific. 

 

 

 

We did do at least one other thing today though and that was fun too. 

 

Many folks watching the manatee were COLD and went into the little store for coffee/tea/hot chocolate and the chili they being served up.

We have coffee and hot chocolate just up the path in Winnona but we go in just to check out the store.  I find this great egg basket that I wish I’d had when Carrie was gathering eggs from our chickens.  She used a traditional woven oak splint egg basket I made with the low ribs for holding the eggs but this is much cuter.

And look what’s behind it!!

 

 

Amish Popcorn with a label that says “non-gmo”.  I have a real dislike for the idea of GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) foods and an even bigger dislike for not having a requirement that such foods must be labeled so the consumer can decide if she actually wants to eat GMO corn, peanuts, potatoes.   These 3 are among the foods it is nearly impossible to get in non GMO form unless they are grown organically.  These 3 are in nearly everything we eat in one form or another.  

Anything with corn or potatoes or peanuts in it is a GMO food.   And that includes popcorn.   The Amish seldom have their foods certified organic.  It’s too expensive a process for them but they even more seldom use anything other than natural fertilizers and their own seed.

 

We also find that they offer popcorn on the cob.  We grew organic popcorn like this for years.

And when we did, we got such sore thumbs cleaning those kernels off the cobs.   I never thought to put them in our microwave popper and see what would happen.  These folks say you can just put the whole thing in the microwave and the kernels will just pop off the cob.  COOL!

 

 

 

We eat a lot of popcorn.  We usually buy organic in bulk at Whole Foods since all popcorn including Orville Redenbacher is made from GMO corn.  There is almost no corn anymore that isn’t GMO.   But we haven’t been near a Whole Foods since our trip to Naples while we were at Big Cypress and that was over a month ago.   We are out of popcorn.  So imagine how excited we are to find not only non GMO popcorn but interesting kinds of popcorn.

So here’s what Nanook of the North came home with.  One 2 lb bag of “Blue: just a little bit sweeter” and one of “White hull less”.  Can’t wait to try them out while watching Season 3 of Downton Abbey that Carrie gave David as a Yule gift.

 

 

Of course they also had a few other types of gifts for sale among the food and camping items.  There is a full gift shop next door so the snack bar/grocery doesn’t have much but I thought these were cute.  Manatee salt and pepper anyone??

 

 

This display had things you could use in the mid 20th century farm kitchen including this great original 1953 cook book.  What a hoot to read the recipes!

 

                       

 

That was our first full day at Blue Spring.

 

 

And just one more manatee– Here’s looking at you!