For this outing, I chose an out-of-the-way, off-the-beaten-path place called Yalaha Bootlegging Co., a craft distillery of moonshine liquor. Moonshine? I was intrigued. Moonshine sort of conjures images of good ole country boys clad in dirty overalls, sporting long gray beards like tree moss, toting museum-quality rifles, and tramping through tangled backwoods to get to illegal stills where they produce a liquor that can burn holes in your stomach. I never really understood why that was appealing but to each his own.
No tangle of underbrush here. It’s surrounded by rows of blueberries on manicured fields. The company consists of two main wooden buildings, weathered and quaintly dilapidated.
Inside the main building is the still. I discovered that moonshine is different from liquor in that it’s not aged in barrels after distillation. Moonshine starts with a mash of grains, water and yeast and unless flavors are added, it’s clear.
Inside the store, it looked like an 1800s mercantile, with a variety of homemade goods for sale: jams, pickles, touristy knickknacks, rows and rows of moonshine, and homemade pies.
Let’s talk about the pies.
Although there was a steady stream of customers, I should’ve noticed that they were buying booze, not pies. Nevertheless, I decided that since I don’t drink and couldn’t comment on the liquor, I could try the pies and let you know if they are worth a trip. They’re not. The clerk declared that the few I could see were all she had left because they sold like hotcakes. I bought a tomato-leek and a blueberry.
By the time I got home, the bottom of the box with the tomato-leek was awash in liquid. Grease? I don’t know. I cut a big piece, warmed it up a bit and sampled it. I didn’t like it. The bottom was mushy, the cream or cheese or whatever the white stuff was seemed clumpy, and I wasn’t fond of the flavor. I’d say skip it.
I turned to the blueberry pie. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson, wouldn’t you? This one had also bled all over the bottom of its box. When I cut into it, I discovered that if blueberries could swim, they’d be doing the backstroke. I took a couple of bites anyway, and then tossed it out.
The Yalaha Bootlegging Co. is located at 8222 County Road 48. It’s open Monday-Sunday from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. They have live country music every Saturday at noon during the fall. If interested, they have pick-your-own blueberries the first week of April. They are about a half hour from Mt. Dora so you could pick up a craft distilled liquor on your way and then spend the day sightseeing in Mt. Dora.
Or, you could stop in at the Yalaha Bakery next door. Leaving the distillery, I turned onto the two-lane road heading out, saw the two-story Yalaha Bakery next door and took note of the fact that the parking lot was packed. I decided I might as well make this outing a two-for-one. Glad I did.
Who knew there was a German bakery out in the middle of nowhere? They have a huge display case of sweets, a rack of homemade breads and, in the rear, a deli. I noticed the only language I heard in the long line was German. I asked a woman, “If you were me, you’d never been here, and you could only buy one thing, what would it be?” She leaned in conspiratorially and said, “Vee come here for zee breads.”
I ended up buying a loaf of cranberry walnut for myself and a loaf of pumpernickel for a friend. And then my sweet tooth got the better of me and I added on a peach streusel and a Bavarian creme-filled croissant. The bread was good but dense. The pastries were gone before you could count to ten.
Although I very much enjoyed the treats, I’m not driving an hour and a half to get them.
My suggestion? If you plan a sightseeing trip to nearby Mt. Dora, you could then mosey over to Yalaha, stock up on sweets and bread, and pick up a bottle of moonshine for an after-dinner drink. Who knows? Maybe the moonshine will burn off the calories of the confections.
- The German bakery is located at 8210 County Rd. 48 in Yalaha, Florida
- 352-324-3366
Lisa Browder 
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