It Could Be Worse

After a splendid meal under the stars cooked by Jeremy, he convinced me that since this is supposed to be a "family" blog someone other than he should contribute to the writing. So here it goes!

In his previous post Jeremy told of how you don't mess with Mother Nature and our pictures proved how nasty she can sometimes be. Although I lamented the damage done to our vegetable plants and our iris divisions, nothing was harmed that couldn't be remedied. The folks at the Rutgers Snyder Research Farm a mile from here had to cancel their 17th Annual Tomato Tasting set for today after losing about 80% of their crop in the storm. All of you know that Jersey tomatoes reign supreme especially over the hard, mealy poor excuses you get at your local supermarket (vine ripe my eye!). The over 1,000 expected visitors, including yours truly, were sorely disappointed as we all salivated at the thought of tasting over 80 varieties of Jersey's finest.

Just as the Snyder Farm seeks to introduce the public to the unusual in a standard product, we are trying to do the same with our iris, peonies, and day lilies---growing common plants in unusual varieties and rainbow of colors.

We're in the process of planting peonies for the spring in standard and dwarf varieties that won't be found elsewhere except by mail order. The day lilies are already taken care of until spring and after the rest of our iris and peonies are planted within the next few weeks, we can sit back and continue to enjoy our "retirement". That is until Jeremy or Garrett give their parents another assignment!