Playalinda Brewing Company

With nothing planned one weekend some friends invited us to go with them to check out the Playalinda Brewing Company in Titusville, Florida.
It is not a long drive from Orlando and perfect for a day trip.
We arrive to a clean and friendly tasting room in a quiet town. A few patrons were enjoying a lazy Sunday.
We had no problem finding a table in the front of the tasting room with a nice view of the street outside.
We ordered flights of beer, some snacks and played the games provided by the tasting room.
We were familiar with Ron Raike’s beers (the brewer) from when he brewed at Shipyard in Orlando (now closed brewery/restaurant). Some interesting brews. My favorite of the day was the strong “Go Big”.
If you are happening to look for a nice short day trip from Orlando I suggest you stop on by.

St Pete Breweries Day 2

We started off our second day of St. Pete with brunch at Peg’s Cantina. It was a good time on the patio enjoying food beer and friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cheese appetizer. It didn’t last long.

Blueberry goat cheese pancakes

The bill comes in this fun box.

Soon after Peg’s we headed over to 3 Daughters for our first beer tasting of the day.

The 3 Daughters tasting room was attractively decorated there. We spent quite a bit of time sipping our samples there. I soon realized that they had an outdoors activity area. You can play games with a view of the brewing facilities.

Our next stop was Cycling Brewing. Their cream & sugar, please was all the rage. We had fun hanging at their tasting room but soon it was time to head back home.

Not quite done yet. We decided to stop at Rapp Brewing Company heading out of Tampa. It proved to be the best stop of the day. You can tell they love what they do, you can taste it in their beers.

So the trip comes to an end. I will return someday. However next on the list is all the great breweries in Dunedin. See you soon!

St Pete Breweries Day 1

Last fall I went on a brewery road trip with some friends from the Orlando Lady Crafters to St. Petersburg, Florida. St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area in general is a burgeoning location for the craft beer scene in Florida. There are a number of breweries in a short distance.
My friends have had craft beer road trips before but this is the first one I was able to attend.
Only a few of our events are opening to the men behind the ladies; this is one of them.
Our first stop on our brewery road trip was the Green Bench Brewing Co. Green Bench hosted a one year anniversary party. We stuck around a while to try some of their beers.

It was very crowded so they decided to discontinue beer flights for the day. I was disappointed I was unable to try more of their selections.
However we did get a free can of their anniversary beer.

They had the brewery open to visitors. We took a tour around.

They even had food trucks and live music outside.

When I cashed out I was happy to discover that they give you one additional anniversary beer for every pint you purchased. We almost had enough for a six pack!

Second stop on our brewery tour was St. Pete Brewing Company.

We were happy to discover that flights were available here.

We passed the time with games while we enjoyed our samples.

After touring the breweries we grabbed dinner at Engine No 9. The Saganaki burger was probably one of the best burgers I have ever had. The restaurant is small and has limited seating. We got lucky out and spread our large group across the bar; we only had to wait around 40 minutes.

Not quite wanting the evening to end we visited the The Ale & The Witch to keep the night going on. They had a great beer selection and live music. However we all got tired quickly and called it a night after one drink. We planned to meet up the next day for more beer-ploring St. Pete.

What a fun day in the city!

February Garden 2015

Night Winter Sky from my backyard

It has been a while since the last garden update. Garden has been neglected a bit but seems to be doing well on its own.

The one citrus plant that was healthy but has yet to bloom is blooming in full force. I did some estimation and we might have 55 limes when it is done this season. Unfortunately it is falling to the same disease as all the others. I have applied some proactive fertilizer (see the brown water on the leaves). The hope is that I can keep it healthy enough for it to fight the sickness off itself. I haven’t found a product that will treat whatever this is that is slowing killing my citrus plants.

Sickly key lime plant is still blooming

Grape vine is still dormant

We have big beautiful collards

The tomato seeds that I planted are doing well through the winter.

We are happy to have our fresh dill back.

Hopefully we won’t lose our blueberries again this year. Have not had luck with them the past two years.

My husband has chopped up our christmas tree. It is supposed to be used for mulch but I might end up composting/throwing it out because it is in the way.

My late fall project is growing in nicely. I replaced one of the gardens with sod and a lavender sensory garden. The grass is green as can be but the lavender is slow to grow.

The lavender is quite beautiful up close though.

Next up some tomatoes, citrus and hopefully blueberry crops in the spring.

St. Pete Art

I visited downtown St. Petersburg, Florida last fall with a group a friends as part of a two day brewery vacation. While there I took note at the interesting art and architecture that the city has to offer.
It was a great way to display street art on underutilized walls.