All Our Seasons in Missouri

The Ste. Geneviève Grape During the 1800s, Ste. Geneviève had its own type of grape. It went by various names, Ste. Geneviève, Amoureux, Red Elben, and American Rulander. It was grown extensively in the Hermann MO and Ohio areas. Today, it is no longer grown. Ste. Geneviève people have been making wine for its entire existence. Originally, the early French made wine from wild grapes growing up in the trees. The phrase, making the vintage with a hatchet, referred to the practice of cutting down trees in order to get to the grapes. The wine was also made from local fruits and berries. Many locals still make their own wine. Today, Ste. Geneviève County is home to numerous wineries along the Route de Vin Trail. Read more…

Zielinski ‘s – Forty Years of Hand-Picked Treasures from Family Adventures Turned Into Downtown Landmark At 288 Merchant Street, the Zielinski family has spent four decades transforming their treasure-hunting adventures into one of Sainte Geneviève’s most beloved antique shops—the kind of place locals describe as “organized and easy to navigate” despite being packed with dishware, vintage luggage, Christmas décor, Precious Moments figurines, lanterns, lamps, and records, where every item represents a story about where the Zielinskis and their friends found it, why they thought it worth bringing back, and who might fall in love with it next. This isn’t sterile retail where corporate buyers order inventory from catalogs. This is deeply personal curation where forty years of estate sales, auctions, flea markets, antique shows, and chance discoveries have filled the shop with items that caught the Zielinskis’ eye—hand-picked across decades of adventuring through Missouri’s backroads and beyond, hunting for the interesting, the beautiful, the nostalgic, and the uniquely connected to Sainte Geneviève’s history. The books and albums section draws particular praise from reviewers who call it one of their “favorite places to shop for anything eclectic, as well as music (LPs especially),” suggesting the Zielinskis have assembled serious vinyl collection Read more…