Ruetz Country Market

Saturday mornings mean early to rise and probably early to bed later today. You remember that little road trip I took solo last Sunday? Well Paul surprised me with hooking up the new lights on our front porch. No walking down to the shed in the dark Saturday mornings anymore. I guess I was complaining enough about it now that the days are getting shorter😁. Sorry for no post yesterday. But our first load of mums have arrived. Come and bring a little color to your front porch this fall. Well it might be only 7 in the morning but a picking we must do. More beans and lots of sweet corn coming your way. I liked how someone said is your corn Uber fresh. It will be Uber fresh today just like most days as Paul also needs to head out shortly to start picking. Hope to see you later today from 9-5.

Picked up a great chicken burger and homemade fries and drink combo for supper supporting the Dungannon Community Center through their food truck. Might not be a fancy place to eat, we are sitting n the back of the market amongst our equipment, but the food is yummy and the company is great. Love supporting these small town fundraising projects. Now back to work, got to wash more beans, with that rain last weekend it has made them dirty .

So many have commented about how it feels like fall already. Who has seen a wooly bear this year? You know , the striped orange and black caterpillar.

It is also called Hedgehog Caterpillar, because it curls into a tight bristly ball and “plays dead” when picked up or disturbed. Whatever name they go by, they are often found in the autumn after they have left their food plants (variety of grasses and weeds including plantain, dandelion, and nettles) in search of a dark and sheltered spot where they can hibernate as larvae for the winter.
It survives the freeze by flooding it’s body with a natural antifreeze called glycerol before the cold arrives. That is so fascinating.

According to folklore, the amount of black on the woolly bear in autumn varies proportionately with the severity of the coming winter in the locality where the caterpillar is found. The longer the woolly bear's black bands, the longer, colder, snowier, and more severe the winter will be. Similarly, the wider the middle brown band is associated with a milder upcoming winter. The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest or hardest. If the head end of the caterpillar is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe. If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold. In addition, the woolly bear caterpillar has 13 segments to its body, which traditional forecasters say correspond to the 13 weeks of winter.

This year I hope to find a few, take a picture and see how much truth this folklore could be. Lets hope we do not find a predominantly black wooly bear. If we do maybe a trip will be booked soon then later.

Where are my canners? Are you thinking you missed the cucumber season? We still have a few but these coolers days slow them down. We do have a bushel of gherkins and about a bushel and a half of dill size available tomorrow. If we feel people are done with making pickles then we may stop picking them so small. Grab them while you still can.

Decorating your fronch porch has never been easier. Everything you need to welcome fall in style. Again we will have a limited amount, not sure how many yet we are thinking about 60 of them, we need to do a little bit of math around here ourselves. Might be more, time will tell. Included in your porch package will be a bundle of corn stalks, a medium size bale of straw (we will have them all in plastic bags for you to keep your vehicle clean. ) One large pumpkin, two smaller pumpkins ( could be orange, white or yellow your choice) two ten inch mums of your choice of colour when you arrive. All of this for $50 taxes INCLUDED in that price. We figure that is a nice size package and if you want to add more to that you can. If you want an extra big pumpkin, mum, etc, go for it but will be above our standard package. We are thinking of having them ready the first week of school so September 9th and later. Or would anyone want them sooner? We do have to make our yearly trip to my brothers to cut the corn stalks still. So, comment below that you would like one, or however you may like to get on our ever so popular fall program and let the Ruetz's make your fall decorating that much easier for you.
Thanks so much for your continued support. It means the world to us.

So our sourdough baker was having a few issues with her starter this week so we will have to delay our sourdough delivery until Friday this week. I know it is not our normal sourdough day but hey, sometimes you need to be flexible. But don’t worry we do have some fresh baking from Bauer Baking and hopefully Stonecrock Baker will be here early afternoon for Thursday. Thanks and hope to see many of you out tomorrow.

Hate to tell you but only four months till Christmas. 🎅🤶But let’s get to Autumn first. Pumpkin spice and everything nice. Now that the rain has stopped for a day ( we got just over 4 inches when it finally stopped) we got more pumpkins out. All our white ones are basically out and we have mixed feeling about them. White pumpkins sometimes turn yellow early and one variety did, so will need to look into a new kind to replace that. And one variety had many tiny ones which we were hoping to be a bit bigger. Oh well at least we got about four bins of random sized white pumpkins. Also got some blue, yellow, pink, goblins out, some big gourds and will try and get a few more orange ones out in the next couple of days. Our first load of mums will be coming sometime on Friday so cannt wait to see them. We will have some mini strawbales, and Indian corn out sometime this week. And hope to get our corn stalks cut next week. We will have lots for your decorations needs. Larger straw bales will be here at some point as well. Will let you know when. Get thinking how you want to decorate your place this fall.

Do you ever drive around aimlessly, no real plan. Had no ambition to do anything and when Paul says “ Well if you do leave I might surprise you and scrub the floor” you get up and leave. He was already vacuuming the spider webs I have been complaining about in the house. So a little snap shot of where I drove aimlessly to. And yes Paul had the entrance and a hallway all scrubbed, and making a double batch of pickles beets again.

What a nice rain. 2 3/4 inches so far and still raining. And you know what jumped into my mind seeing that amount? Glad that was not snow or else that would have been a good amount we would have to be snow blowing/ shoveling today. For those with rain gauges how much rain have you gotten so far? Self serve is set up for those that might need anything. Don’t forget the bouquets of flowers we have are all in there with all money towards the MRI. Have a great Sunday.

Okay I have heard of many of you make some amazing preserves. Why not put them in the Ripley fair? If you make a yummy relish you may even win one of the gift certificates donated by us. Who is entering this year?

It's almost Ripley Fall Fair time!

We have the largest Canning Exhibit in the area!

This week I want to highlight some of our amazing sponsors!

I'm testing out a new recipe for the Ruetz Country Market - Your Favourite Relish Special!

Thank you to Paul and Linda for being amazing supporters of the Ripley Agricultural Society Fall Fair!

How many of you have entries ready? There are some absolutely amazing prizes this year!

Let's break some records and have the most exhibits ever this year!

Link to fall fair book in the comments below!