Monticello and the Case of the Missing Blueberry

One of our last hurrahs for the summer was a weekend trip to visit our family in Virginia.
As “foodies” and staunch advocates of organic gardening, we thought it would be fun to visit

Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.

We left Philadelphia early and arrived at Nathan and Marina’s home a little after lunchtime. Since we wanted to make the most of our time at Monticello, we grabbed some organic walnuts and blueberries to take along as snacks. 

Look they even have bees!

There is a lot to see at Monticello. We opted for the garden tour. 

All I can say is that Thomas Jefferson was a landscape genius. 

Every aspect of the garden was impeccably designed and well thought out to create an outdoor masterpiece. Thomas Jefferson 

was also into seed preservation and collected many varieties of heirloom seeds from his garden. It is interesting that what one of America’s founding fathers respected the the importance of good food and understood the role it plays in our future. Jefferson had 

the insight to preserve seed quality. Unfortunately, these days many people seem to want to do exactly the opposite of this, thanks to modern agricultural practices and politics.

Summer squash 

Food quality is important to me and I want to know what I am eating;

I want to keep my blueberries pure and free of genetically 

modified ingredients.

And now for the magic question, why the title of this post? Well, one thing about organic foods is that they are not all perfect which is exactly the way food is supposed to be. In a box of fruit you may get two or three inedible pieces as I did with my blueberries. In my effort to separate out my few funky berries, one escaped. We searched the car several times but the berry was never found. I guess it is just one of those unsolved mysteries.

Denny, Susan, Nathan and Marina overlooking the lower garden.