Has Spring Sprung?

Any guesses as to what is growing up through the snow????

Chopping Wood

Here we are chopping wood at the Rilinger farm. What a blast it was!

To Dig or Not Dig

So our lovely, amazing, beautiful and brilliant puppy dog Rheau continues to dig. Now, when we picked her up a last April we knew she was a dog who liked to dig. We walked to the back yard to pick her up and she was digging. We never knew how much she liked to dig. Saturday when it was 70 degrees out (in February), I walked into the backyard and noticed that Rheau, had been digging up against the house behind the bushes. There are probably six holes there. That is now in addition to the eight holes in our back yard, plus the hole she dug that is deep enough and wide enough for her paws and head to get down in. So, yes, our dog is amazing, but geez Rheau, quit digging up the backyard!!!!!

Wedding Pics

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)