Blackberry Picking Trip

Out looking for berries

In my last post I mentioned the importance of getting off the Whitman campus and exploring the surrounding area(s). Besides being historically important (at one time Walla Walla was the capital for the Northwest Territories) the Walla Walla area is full of incredible outdoor opportunities.

*As a side note to learn more about the wilderness areas around SE Washington/NE Oregon visit Grant Ritchie's (a Whitman alum and dear friend) webpage hikeandfishing. *

Prof Hutch

Sunday provided a perfect opportunity for exploration and team bonding as we joined the women's team for some blackberry picking and a dutch oven dinner at Professor Hutchinson's spread on the South Fork of the Walla Walla. Besides being an incredibly popular Whitman professor, Hutch is also a huge fan of Whitman athletics. He routinely shows up at a number of athletic competitions. Funny story -- last year he was kicked out of a men's basketball game!

The new Texas boys!

Turned out to be a great time for blackberries. We have had an unusually cool summer so the blackberries are ripening a bit late. Luckily everyone was able to find plenty of berries to fill bellies (seems more berries go bramble-to-belly than bramble-to-bucket) and to provide fruit for dessert.

Dutch Oven Dinner

While the men and women were out collecting berries and exploring the river, I got the dutch ovens ready for the dinner. I'm the first to admit that I'm a dutch oven rookie but I enjoy the experience of cooking outdoors over a fire. Honestly I was nervous about cooking for both teams. Besides preparing a new recipe I was also cooking for the women's team. Over the years I've learned that guys get hungry in college and are grateful for any meal I cook. They, in turn, have learned to heap praise on my cooking so I keep cooking for the them. Not sure if this is an example of a symbiotic relationship or a positive feedback loop, but it seems to work well.  However I wasn't sure how the women would react to my cooking. I used this chicken paad thai recipe as a start for my dinner. By the way I don't know the author of the "Back Porch Gourmet" Blog but he has some great outdoor cooking recipes and ideas. For the dinner I used two ovens -- one for chicken and one for a veggie version. Dinner must of been good because everyone went back for seconds! In fact the huge dutch oven with the chicken paad thai was gobbled up pretty quickly.

Wow what a dessert!

As dinner was wrapping up Coach John prepared Hutch's dutch ovens for dessert -- fresh blackberry & apple cobbler. Check out the picture of his amazing dessert! Throw in some vanilla ice cream, friends and roaring fire for one heck of a memorable evening.

Here is a link to photos from the evening.