Our Life Together: 2008

Garden Update- Oct 11, 2008

Jeremy standing next to an Okra plant that is over 6 ft tall.

Wow, so we really feel amazingly blessed to have such a good year for our garden. The weather has been perfect. So here is where we are today.

Giant Belgium--29
Black Brandywhine--23
Old German--18
Pink Oxheart--47
Brandwhine-7
Jetstar--28
Valencia--36
Celebrity--19
1st Lady--55
Whopper--51
Jet Setter--22
Better Boy--34
Total Tom--369
Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tom- 388
Yellow Pear Tom- 643
Okra- 176
Total Tomatoes given away 100+
Tomatoes lost to silly puppies, squirrels, rabbits and other critters- 75+
BLT's--50+ and no, bacon does not cause depression, it's causes great joy!

Looking forward to next year- Valencias, Whoppers, Giant Belgiums and Yellow Pear...not sure what else we will plant but it will probably be a few more heirlooms.

Favorite quick and easy recipe- Fried Okra (flour/cornmeal/milk) dipped in Chipotle Mayo. Wow, that was good.

And yes, we are still harvesting as long as the plants keep producing.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day on the farm was a wonderful few days of hard work, good food and being the in the quiet and peace of creation. The RV was a rental, was in pretty good shape and served us quite well. The airconditioner was a must in the 110 degree weather. The cabin is coming along. It's held up pretty well. As a rest from our labor, it was a perfect weekend. Church was great as was all the homecooked meals. We gave away all of our tomatoes and we came home to a new harvest of approximately 20+ more.

August 22nd Harvest Report

Giant Belgium-23, Black Brandywhine-18, Old German-11, Pink Oxheart-29, Red Brandywhine-7
Jestar-10, Valencia-15, Celebrity-19, 1st Lady-38, Whopper-32, Jet Setter-13, Better Boy-8
Total Tomatoes- 233
Sweet Baby Girl-256
Yellow Pear-235

Tomatoes given away--approximately 50+
BLT's- 22

We really liked the Whoppers and Giant Belgiums early season, now the Valencia and Old German are tasting the best. It's interesting what just a few short months of growing and interesting Missouri weather can do to a tomato.
The most interesting thing this past few weeks has been the absolutely crazy Okra crop we have seen. We may be fighting squash beatles and have ony 3 zuccinni to our name, but those Okra are growing like crazy. We have harvested 66 Okra 9 plants, and there are probably another 20 ready to be picked! Wow. It's been a wonderful year to garden.

August 10 Harvest Report

Giant Belgiums- 22, Black Brandwhine-16, Old German-8, Pink Oxheart-23, Red Brandywhine-7, Jetstar-9, Valencia-13, Celebrity-19, 1st Lady-24, Whopper-26, Jet Setter-13, Better Boy-12
For a wonderful total of 192 Tomatoes!!!
240 Sweet Baby Girl
166 Yellow Pear

Other veggies of note-
47 Okra
18 Squash

We wonder if Toby Tobin or Paul Harvey would be impressed with our small but bountiful effort? We feel very blessed and still continue to enjoy our garden. What a blessing.

Trip to Weston

Wow, what a great place to go. We spent a few days in Weston and really enjoyed the food at Pastimes and America Bowman. Our best meal was a lunch at AB- We had Corn Chowder (corn, sausage, potato, pepper, celery, onion all in a wonderful white soup mix), Jill had a turkey sandwich, and Jeremy had a cooked sirloin with potato. Probably the best and most authentic Irish meal in a while. We stayed a Laurel Brooke farm. A great place to stay. We also road our bikes on the 3 mile trail at the State Park. We also caught a glimpse of the Iatan power facility (whoa!). Lots of fun.

Pickles Anyone?

It started this week at the Vickers household...canning. Yes, by August we are already canning. With two huge bumper crops of cucs, we just had to try it. So we are canning dill and sweet pickles. Dill pickles are rather easy, it's the sweet pickles that will take several weeks. With over 80 large and small cucs picked already, it might be a busy fall ;0)

Homemade Pizza with Homemade Sauce

So, we felt like pizza this evening. After looking at a few different recipes, we decided to have some fun and experiment. Here is the recipe we came up with-

Pizza Dough-

1 Cup warm water

1 Package of dry yeast

2-3 cups flour

2 tablespoons of olive oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

Soften the yeast with the water. Add the flour, salt and oil. Add in enough flour to make soft dough. Knead. Let rise 30 mins until doubled. Grease pizza tray. Roll out dough and prebake for 10 mins at 400.

Pizza Sauce-

2 tomatoes from the garden

1/2 green pepper from the garden

1 1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar

1/2 cup tomato juice

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 teaspoon of garlic

1/4 cup Olive oil

1/2 Cup fresh chopped Basil from the garden

2 teaspoons fresh chopped Oregano from the garden

2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning

Blend tomato, green pepper, Basil, Oregano. Saute garlic in olive oil. Then add Italian seasoning. Add blend, brown sugar, tomato juice, salt and vinegar. Cook on medium until reduced to sauce.

Pull crust out of oven, place sauce and other toppings on and cook for another 20 mins, turning once on 375-400 degrees.

July 25th Harvest Report

Crop Report- 1:31 pm, July 25, 2008

Wheat- $8.18-----Corn-$5.98-----Soybeans- $13.88-------Tomato prices are drastically down today due to one of the largest backyard harvest reports in history!!!!

Giant Belgium- 2, Black Brandywhine- 1, Pink Oxheart- 2, Jetstar-3, Celebrity-5, 1st Lady-4, Whopper-4, Jetsetter-4, Better Boy-3

Total Tom Harvest as of Today- 74!

Sweet Baby Girl Cherry- 25, Yellow Pear-9, Cucumbers-34, Red Onion- 5, Jalepeno-3, Ancho-1, Squash-3, Zuccinni-3, Okra-4

Oh yeah, thanks for the help Rheau!

#1 of Many Great Debates- Culinary Synergy and Add-Ins

Since our 4th date, Jill and I have greatly and lovingly debated, discussed and surmised the different tastes, methods and appropriateness of certain additions to our favorite dishes. We will call them "add-ins", as for most people, they are a peculiar and sometimes off-putting additions to an otherwise perfect meal. As we all have different and unique tastes, there are some add-ins which are absolutely and firmly inappropriate! So, this one has been under topic for a while....so we ask our family and friends to weigh in on this one.

#1- When serving hamburger gravy, mashed potatoes and corn in what is the perfect farm meal, is it appropriate to place tomatoes on top of the hamburger gravy?

Jill says yes.
Jeremy says...ummm, gross and yuck! The integrity of the dish is compromised...why Lord, why?

*If you don't know what hamburger gravy, mashed taters and corn have to do with each other and never heard of hamburger gravy...we are dearly sorry that you have missed out. You can rarely order it in a restaurant, so google it and enjoy making it yourself.

July 23rd Harvest Report

As of July 23rd 2007 - 6 Tomato Plants- 8 toms harvested
As of July 23rd 2008- 12 Tomato Plants- 46 toms harvested

Best Tasting thus far- Whopper
Most disappointing- Brandywhine- When oh When will they be ready... (a rabbit got one)
Most surprising- Old German Heirloom

# of Plants replanted due to puppy damage- 3

# of BLT's this year to date- 9 (YUM) some peaches and cream corn (no butter, no salt) makes it the best summer meal ever.

Advice from our second year of gardening thus far-- Planting Cucumber plants does not work in our area of Missouri. For the second year in a row we had to plant seeds late after losing plants. Oh well, live and learn.

Just for Fun- So, after church one day we were waiting for a roast to finish. We walked outside, pulled some okra and onions. We washed them off, dunked them in milk, then rolled them in corn meal, flour, salt, pepper, seasoning salt and cooked them in some oil. Add a mayonnaise with chipotle seasoning side dish, and well, it was a great appetizer.

Newest Creation- Jill and Jeremy's Banana Pepper Relish
Cucumbers, Banana Peppers, Jalepeno, Cilantro, Dried Red Peppers and a special sweet sauce mix and BAM, wow, delicious relish for hot dogs, brisket or roast.

Our 2nd Garden

As we enter our 4th month of marriage, we thought we would do some updating of our wedding/now life together site. Since one of our greatest passions is gardening, here is what we are working on this year.
14 Tomato Plants
Heirloom- Giant Belgium, Black Brandwhine, Old German, Pink Oxheart, Brandywhine
Regular- Jet Star, Valencia, Celebrity, 1st Lady, Whopper, Jet Setter, Better Boy
Small- Sweet Baby Girl, Yellow Pear
8 Peppers
Fat & Sassy, Red Beauty, Blushing Beauty, Golden Bell, Big Bomb, Super Banana Supreme, Jalepeno, Ancho
Herbs
Cilantro, Italian Oregano, Blue Hyssop, Sweet Thai Basil, Spicy Globe Basil, Chives, Sweet Basil,
Other Stuff
Okra, Zuccinni, Squash, Yellow Onion, Red Onion, Gourds, Mini-Pumpkins

Our first post

Welcome to our wedding site. You can find out about how we met, where we have been and where we are going with our life TOGETHER.

Our Wedding is set for April 12, 2008 at 1 pm at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Lee's Summit.

Thanks for all your prayers!

The Proposal

So, November 1st I (Jeremy) had planned a nice dinner on the plaza at the Classic Cup. We had been the Classic Cup on our first date to the plaza. I had hoped to eat at 6:30 pm, be out to one of the bridges over brush creek by 7:30 pm so I could ask Jill to marry me. Well, it didn't work out that way. We arrived at the Classic Cup and waited over 50 mins for our meal because they gave our food to the people next to us, then promised us it would be about in "just a few minutes". We left Classic Cup around 8 pm. The whole time I wanted to say to one of the waiters, "Hey, you are messing up my time schedule for asking Jill to marry me". So I waited, waited and waited. Finally left and headed out, and Jill wanted to go shopping. So we shopped and looked, and looked and shopped, all the while me checking my pocket every 5 mins to make sure the ring was still there.

So after much waiting, shopping and walking, we slowly walked out over brush creek on the main bridge. I had called her parents (Larry and Nancy Rilinger) for their daughters' hand in marriage the day before. I got down on one knee and asked Jill to marry me. She was speechless. She put both her hands on her face and said "Oh my goodness". She was very suprised. I then said, is that a yes? Yes, yes, yes, she said. And so on November 1, 2007 Jill said yes.

The First Shower

So, we traveled to the amazing metropolis of Wamego for our first shower. We shared our first shower with an amazing couple (Andy and Kim- whose wedding is the weekend before ours), and it was their first shower too. After a wonderful dinner of soup and sandwiches, we sat down to open a few gifts from our loving family. Here are few of the pics Jill's nieces took...they profusely apologize for the out of focus, fuzzy pics, as they were interfered with by a 3 yr old grabbing at the camera. (sadly Jill's goddaughter, and ONCE favorite niece was unable to fufill her purpose of official shower picture taker, although she did get one in focus nice picture of her shoes which is not posted).

How We Met

So, here is the story. Jill's sister Jamie lives across the street from Kelli. Kelli knew Jeremy through church. Kelli thought Jill would be perfect for Jeremy. Kelli knew Jeremy as someone who had a sense of adventure, and she also knew that Jill had recently returned from a 3 month trip to Alaska. They would be perfect for each other! So after a few phone calls Jeremy and Jill had lunch at Jason's Deli on February 7th 2006 and well, we just knew! Jeremy was told to look for a short girl with dark curly hair, green glasses and a "deer in the headlights look". She was easy to spot!