Pickyourown.org: About the Website's Creator!

Find a local pick your own farm here!

Looking for Pickyourown.org: About the Website's Creator! in 2024? Scroll down this page and follow the links. And if you bring home some fruit or vegetables and want to can, freeze, make jam, salsa or pickles, see this page for simple, reliable, illustrated canning, freezing or preserving directions. There are plenty of other related resources, click on the resources dropdown above. If you are having a hard time finding canning lids, I've used these, and they're a great price & ship in 2 days.

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Pickyourown.org: About the Website's Creator!

People have asked me to publish a bio and little about myself, so here it is. blake's sons picking blueberries

I graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in chemistry/chemical engineering, but a specialization in environmental engineering. I worked in the environmental engineering field for 25 years, until I challenged my employer, Waste management Inc's senior leaders and I consequently found I could not get a job in the environmental field. Colleagues told me they blackballed me, but I have no way to prove that. But those leaders did have to pay $30 million in fines for "cooking the books": see my editorial here: http://www.ehso.com/ed03deanbuntrock.php

I taught myself to design websites and my first, www.ehso.com went up in 1998. When I moved to Atlanta from London, England, and my nieces came for a visit, I wanted to take them to pick strawberries. I had such a heck of a time finding which farms allowed U-pick (from old newspaper articles, state agriculture department websites, etc.), that I decided to save the information I gathered on a webpage on my home website. That page was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article, which made me realize that many other people had the same difficulty in finding current, accurate information about farms.

So, I started gathering the information, every night from 9 pm to 2 am (I was single at the time) and creating t Picking blueberries he pickyourown.org website.

Slowly, the website started to gain popularity, and more farmers created listings for their farms, and more visitors added comments, corrections and updates. Over the next few years, the website grew in size and accuracy. I then started working on similar, related websites for pumpkin patches, corn mazes and Christmas trees. My current project is local farm markets.

I also realized that every year, when I went to make some jam or applesauce, I would forget all the little tips and tricks that they don't mention in the Ball Blue Book. So, I thought I'd photograph each step of each recipe and make a webpage of it, so I'd have an easier time each year. I started working my way through the Ball Blue Book and USDA recipes, kind of like a "Julie and Julia" of home canning. I thought those pages would only appeal to me, but it became obvious pretty quickly that I wasn't only. Apparently, most people like to have simple, step-by-step directions with photos to help!

Along the way, I got married (and divorced ) but I have 2 wonderful boys, now, ages 10 years and 14 years old, who I take to many farms, pumpkin patches, corn mazes and Christmas tree farms every year. My 2 guys love to visit the farms with me, and love picking berries in our garden.

My older son loves to work on the computer (mostly using educational websites) and I hope he'll take over maintaining the webs Blake on his bike in France ites one day.I plan to keep these websites current for many years to come, so don't worry about the websites going away or not being maintained! :)

Other stuff:

I'm love anything outdoors and particularly healthy living and fitness. I love to travel; having lived in Europe for 8 years, and traveled extensively throughout Europe on a motorcycle, with a tent and sleeping bag (southern France, southern Germany and Italy are GREAT to travel by bike or camping. )

My backyard garden is huge: I have 7 peach trees, 6 apple trees, 2 cherry, 7 figs, apricots, plums, raspberries, tayberries, blackberries, marionberries, loganberries, strawberries, grapes, and a 100ft by 100 ft vegetable garden; all sustainable and organic.

And I do can and freeze a lot: about 300 jars annually. So I get lots or practice! Blake and son at the beach, June 2010

Despicable ME 2 Minions sand sculpture Spongebob Sand sculpture Luigi Sand sculpture I like to make sand sculptures when I'm at the beach with my boys - I make whatever they request: this summer I made Spongebob,Luigi, and Minions,