You've Got to Relish a Good Jam!

I believe I've mentioned that at work I'm the system admin for this software that we use?  They recently replaced their reporting tool with another one and I haven't had the time to get into it and get comfortable.  I knew there would be a "regional" conference just south of Akron, Ohio where one of the two days would be spent totally on reporting so I planned on going.

This conference was this past Tuesday in Orrville, Ohio, at the J.M. Smucker headquarters.  Originally, the Mom-bot was going to go with me because I don't generally let her out of the condo.  However, Thing #1 called and said she was free to come visit from South Carolina, so Mom stayed home with her and the cats while I made my way to great unknown that is Ohio.

I've only been to Ohio once before, MANY moons ago, when I went to Kings Island with one or both of the twins and their respective hubs.

I'm not sure what Mom had planned on doing while I was in the conference, and now, having been there, I'm STILL not sure what she would have done, but one thing on that sparked my interest, when I was looking at the agenda, was a trip to the Smucker Store/Gift Shop.  Frequent readers should know that I never pass by a good gift shop.  So since Mom wasn't going to go with me, I asked her if there was something she'd like me to pick up while I was there.

Mom, who has never been an expensive date, requested some orange marmalade.  And yes, I could have just bought some for her at Schnucks.  Aunt Marilee requested gooseberry jam/jelly.

(WARNING:  Topic taking a left turn ahead!) When I was growing up in the wilds of Posey County, we had a gooseberry bush.  For those who have never had the experience of eating a not-yet-ripe gooseberry, just imagine eating something so tart that it makes every orifice in your body pucker up.  Frankly, I cannot imagine gooseberry jelly/jam, but presumably it's either made with a LOT of sugar or at some point those gooseberries must ripen, although that must be a rare event based on my experience.

Back to our story, Holly Googled it, and no, Smucker does not make anything involving gooseberries.  Looked like my only hope was getting some from the Amish.  Of course, as it turns out, Orrville is smack dab in Amish country!  So Rose had a quest!  ....  and... she's off!

I left the condo on Monday morning.  It was a lovely drive.  I wasn't alone, I had two travelling companions to keep me entertained (see pic).  I arrived in Louisville in no time.  Then I realized that, genius that I am, my genius did not extend to geography.  I honestly thought that Cincinnati was right across the Ohio River from Louisville.  Imagine my surprise when, as I'm leaving Louisville, I see a sign that says something like Cincinnati 80(ish) miles!  Don't blame my NPHS education.  I didn't take Geography.  On the other hand, I have a GPS.

I got there and back safely (#obvies) so no point in going into boring detail.  And the conference was a conference - I did learn a lot and I'm glad I went - but you don't care.  Although they did feed us a nice lunch which included some sort of pepper relish in a jar.  I figured I'd try it - it was FABULOUS!!  So I made a mental note to look for some at the ...  Smucker Store/Gift Shop!...  It was very good and, unfortunately, only comes in this wee little jar.  I'd have bought a quart of it!  They did not, as predicted, have anything involving gooseberries, and I was NOT buying a jar of something I could buy at the grocery store.  I did get some Cranberry Relish, and some Tart Cherry Preserves.

On Wednesday, as I prepared to trek back home, I, with the help of Google and my GPS, planned out my route.  First, to find an Amish store that was a) open; b) not too out of my way; and c) had gooseberry stuff.  Believe it or not #c was a deal breaker for several stores.  But I finally found one - Ashery Country Store -  per their website, they had Gooseberry Jam.

As I entered Amish country, I said to myself that I hoped to see a horse and buggy.   After seeing several and being stuck behind one for a couple of miles, was I hoping NOT to see anymore horse and buggies!

I finally found the store - it was very nice.  I wandered around the store, grabbed a couple of jars of the stuff, nabbed an Orange Marmalade, some pickled beets for Mom; some cookies (Lemon Snaps!) for me, and was just realizing that I really should have got a basket when an Amish lady comes in with a cardboard box full of rhubarb.

She probably felt concerned because I immediately started following her.  See, Mom and I had just recently been lamenting the total lack of decent rhubarb in our diet.  Although Schnucks does occasionally sell it, it's expensive and not that great looking; whereas this rhubarb had been picked that morning and was only $1.99/lb!  After the lovely lady sold her rhubarb to woman behind the counter, I proceeded to ask the counter lady if I could buy some of that!  I knew Mom would be very pleased!

After leaving the Amish store with my purchases, I moved to the next quest for the day....

My favorite local pizza place, Spankey's, sells Graeter's Ice Cream.  It's incredibly expensive, by the scoop, but Mom and I splurged one evening and decided it was pretty daw-gone good!  So I Googled it and discovered that Ohio is literally littered with Graeter's Ice Cream stores.   This was all a couple of months ago and we had even tossed around the idea of a road trip to Cincinnati for ice cream.  That never happened, but wait, I'm going to Ohio, so, duh!

Before leaving, I'd packed a styrofoam cooler and a couple of gallon ziploc baggies and a frozen ice pack.  Kept the ice pack in the freezer in my hotel room's refrigerator and smuggled out the Ziploc baggies filled with ice from the ice machine before leaving the hotel.

I chose a Graeter's that was just off of the interstate in Columbus.  Turns out it is like $2 cheaper at the actual store than it is at our grocery store.  Not that that difference makes a trip to Cincinnati worth the savings, but since I also discovered that there three stores in the Indianapolis area, it could certainly justify going to one of them when we're in Indy.  I really wanted some of the Key Lime Pie which was the flavor of the month.  But I ended up getting 6 pints of various flavors.  They were slightly smooshy when I finally got home, but my cooling system worked fine!

The next stop was Haley's house to make a delivery and have a pit stop.  Her ferocious guard cat was in the dining room, sleeping.  He wandered into the bathroom to attack me by viciously plopping on his back so I could give him some belly scritches.  He then wandered back off to the dining room and was sleeping again as I left.  Whew!  I was so grateful to make it out alive!

The final stop before heading home was the Doctor Who store.  I spent a goodly amount of time coveting over a variety of things.  I had to remind myself that I'm an adult and that I don't need 50 different action figures of the Doctor.  I did allow myself to get a coffee mug and a Doctor Who Mr. Potato Head to go with my Star Wars/Trek potato heads.

By the time I was heading home, I was pooped!  But very pleased with my escapades.