BLUEBERRIES ON HOLD: We mentioned in this column earlier this week that Red, White, & Blueberries Farm has, in previous years, opened for picking this weekend — this is NOT the case this year, unfortunately.

Brian Pistner called on Friday to deliver the horrible news, “We hoped to open (on-time) but we had crop failure. We lost all our early plants.”

Don’t fret, though, mid-season is shaping up. Pistner expects to open Saturday, July 16. Then be open after that, Wednesdays through Saturdays this year.

He also said, “the late-season is looking really good. We are still going to open, and will have berries — I’m sorry for the inconvenience…”

Dear Mr. Pistner and all the suppliers of fresh food in this area, thank you for what you do. Year in and year out, you put in the work to keep so many fed, and sometimes, nature does not cooperate. No apologies are needed.

SUGAR-FILLED CRAVINGS. Today, offers the perfect excuse to indulge in the sweet, sugar-filled craving of sugar cookies and recognize one of the greatest holidays: National Sugar Cookie Day!

These delicious classics were initially referred to as Nazareth Cookies — originating back in the 1700s in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. German Protestant settlers were known to bake their “Nazareth Cookies’’ in the shape of the State symbol, a keystone, according to NationalToday.com.

Fast forward a couple hundred years, and sugar cookies are now such a traditional, household cookie in the United States that in the 1930s it became extremely popular to leave these specific cookies out for Santa to consume, as a thank you for the gifts left.

Then in 2001, it became official — the Nazareth Sugar Cookie is named the official cookie of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.