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!