Teri's Tours and B&B

Recently we had the pleasure of having Himself's oldest brother (Bro 1) come to The Sticks for a nice long visit.  It's been 11 years since they have seen each other and we wanted to show him a good time while he visited.  Like me, he loves seeing new things and learning.

Well alrighty then!

We did a 'hypertufa' plant pot class (more on that in another post).  Bro 1 made 2 nice pots that I will ship up to him once they have cured.

And Himself arranged a black smith lesson with one of his friends from the Possum Trot Forge.

He also enjoys history so we visited the Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederacy) Monument.

See them right above the word "Jefferson"?

Plus we did another Confederate stop at Ft. Defiance in Clarksville.  The city has a very nice museum and grounds that are free to visit.

We all like genealogy so we visited Greenwood cemetery in Clarksville.

Bro 1 has a degree in horticulture, all things 'plant' interest him.  That was an easy to accommodate!

One of our excursions was out to the Amish produce auction and around to various farm stands.

My favorite farm stand was prepping onions for storage.

A look around a nice garden center.

Checking out burley tobacco in a friend's field.

"If you build it...they will come..."

(Field of Dreams)

In a friend's black bamboo grove.

He also has a taste for good chocolate, so we did a factory tour at Olive & Sinclair artisan chocolate makers.

Enjoying an appetizer of tahdig (crispy rice) at our favorite Persian restaurant.  I also had a blast cooking favorite recipes... Beef Stroganoff, black beans & rice, Chicken Rolade, and Rosemary Thyme marinated steaks.

And of course there was a lot of just sitting on the couch visiting, looking at family photos, and sharing of our home.  It was a great visit and we're looking forward to him coming back.

But alas...there were two things that Northerner did not like about The South:

The insane humidity.

CHIGGERS!!

Veggie Overload at the Amish Produce Auction

I'm gearing up for canning season.  Part of my pre-planning involved heading north to Fairview, KY for the Amish produce auction.

When you see the buggies along with trucks, cars, tractors, and bicycles... you know you are at the right place!

Many local restaurants and stores get their produce here.  There are auctions 4 days a week.

Each trolley is one lot of produce.

Care for a few tomatoes?

There's all sorts of varieties.

Fruit is available too.

Beautiful cauliflower.

An overload of yellow squash.

Bushels of cabbage.

Onions anyone?

There's an area where you can get smaller amounts too.  It's usually a half bushel or less.

Like this box of mixed tomatoes.

Or these 10 half pound bundles of asparagus.

Hmmm.. guess who forgot her notepad?

My bargain for the day was a half bushel (about 25) cucumbers for $1.50.  Yep, .06c a cucumber!  Also got a half bushel of green beans for $2.

We'll be back soon!

Auction Roses

I left out one thing from yesterday's post about the Amish auction... the roses.

I think this year was the best ever for beautiful and unique (at least to me) varieties.  I just had to share them in a separate post.

Aren't they wonderful?

Fairview Amish Plant Auction 2016

A couple of Saturdays ago was The Day!

The day for the annual Fairview Amish plant auction... that flower and plant sensory overload we try to attend every year.

The busy auctioneers.  They were at it for hours.

Folks watching what's up for sale...and what is coming up next.  My orange chairs stake out my place.  I can see everything that is being wheeled up to the auction block but still be out of the crowd.  When something interested me I went right up next to the wagon they were selling from, once done I sat back down.

Pallets full of plants.

Each and every pallet was brought up by a darling little boy.  They worked hard and with a smile.

There was a lot of visiting inbetween bidding.

So many plants went by me...

It was hard to keep track of them.

Himself wandered around enjoying all the beauty.

This Bleeding Heart is what he was looking so closely at.

If you got tired of looking at the flowers, you could always do some people watching.

There were a LOT of fairy/dish gardens this year.

They were at the end of the line so I didn't stay around to see what they went for.

This banana tree went for $23.  First time I'd ever seen one of those at the auction.

So... what did I come home with?  Not much really.

For Mom... a Redbud tree, a Dogwood tree, and a flat of moss rose.

For me... 4 Goliath tomato plants ...

and a present from Himself - a huge Jade plant that went at a crazy low price.

(We were given a bit of advice to come back AFTER Mother's Day from much cheaper prices.  So we'll be going back soon!)