A colorful family quilt served as a backdrop to the blooming potato patch at Ruppert Family Produce near Currie. Siblings Katelyn and Zachery Ruppert have grown up raising vegetables and melons sold around southwest Minnesota.

CURRIE — Lots of people know the Ruppert family’s produce. Since 2007, Kim and Kerry Ruppert and their children have grown fruits and vegetables for customers at farmers markets and schools around southwest Minnesota.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it, the family said.

“I think it’s amazing to know you fed other people,” said Katelyn Ruppert, Kim and Kerry’s daughter.

Next week, visitors will actually get a chance to see the Rupperts’ vegetable garden south of Currie. It’s just one of the stops on the Tracy Area Gardens and Quilts Tour.

The Gardens and Quilts Tour is July 10. This year, the tour will feature a total of seven garden sites in the area around Tracy, Lake Shetek and Currie, as well as quilts from eight different quilters and quilting groups. People on the tour can also enjoy pie and ice cream served at Breezy Barn.

This year, the tour is “kind of all in a straight shot,” heading south from Tracy, said Jolynn Johns, one of the tour organizers. Stops on the way will include the gardens of Marianne and Robert Ankrum, Sis and Joe Beierman, Melissa and Jim Christian, Desneige and Jim Gervais, Lori and Val Eberspacher, Jesse James, and Ruppert Garden Produce.

Each stop on the tour will feature displays of quilts, Johns said. Contributing to the show are the Lake Sarah Quilters, Cindy Bader, Pam Swanson, Becky Peters, Lynn Verline, Karen Johansen, Janet Kirchner and Lynn Larson. The show will also include quilts donated to the Tracy Lions’ “Help Tuck Them In” project, which builds beds for area children.

Johns said the Rupperts’ all-vegetable garden will be something new for the tour. The Rupperts grow vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, beets, carrots and onions, as well as melons, on 1.5 acres of land at their farm. This spring, the plantings included 2,600 onions, they said.

Over the past 17 years, Kim and Kerry’s children Haylee, Zachery and Katelyn have all worked the garden.

“It’s a big job for you guys,” Kim Ruppert said.

“Summers are very busy,” Katelyn Ruppert said. She balances the long hours of planting and caring for the vegetable garden with sports and other activities.

Kim said the Rupperts were able to start college funds for their children through the proceeds of the garden. Katelyn Ruppert said it’s also been good to know they’re helping to feed people through their work. They sell produce to many area school districts, including Tracy, Murray County Central, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, Marshall and Lynd.

Zachery Ruppert said over time the family has learned which varieties of fruits and vegetables work best for them, and which are their favorite to grow.

“I like watermelon and muskmelon,” he said. “But it’s a lot of work.”

Like all vegetable gardeners, the Rupperts have to grapple with weather, plant diseases, weeds and pests. “We hope to try more disease-resistant varieties” of vegetables and melons, Zachery said.

The Gardens and Quilts Tour will be from 2-7:30 p.m. on July 10, with a rain date of July 11. Tickets are $20, and will be available starting at 2 p.m. at The Caboose in Tracy, End-O-Line Railroad Park in Currie, and at each tour site.